Adjusting Our 'Tudes

Here we go again.  It's Monday Devo time!!!  First of all, I'm really enjoying this.  I was a little hesitant at first, but God gave me so many affirmations through last Monday's devo that I know for sure that He was telling me to do it.  So, it's here to stay now.  I'm 10 minutes away from Monday being over, so I better get this going!

"Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus."

Philippians 2:5

By nature I have a very strong personality.  For those that know me personally this statement certainly doesn't come as a shock.  When I'm happy, I'm really happy.  When I'm sad, I'm really sad.  When I'm excited, I'm completely overjoyed.  When I'm frustrated, it's ugly.  There you have it.  It ain't always pretty.

Then you throw in marriage and parenting in this mix of wild and crazy emotions.  God's been really doing a work in me lately.  I'm typically very impatient.  That certainly does not go too well with parenting.  My oldest child is a lot like me.  He has a heart the size of Texas, and he absolutely cannot stand to see someone hurting, but he also has this other side that is completely bull headed.  As you can guess, our heads can tend to butt.  :)  We are coming out of the terrible twos (yes he's 3 1/2, but hey, we're getting there!), but we definitely still have our days.  As I've been growing closer to the Lord, I've started to see things I definitely need to change.

"Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

So I've been making some changes in my attitude.  I'm striving harder now than ever to show love the way Christ does.  To be patient, just as my Jesus has been patient with me.  You want to know something crazy??  The entire dynamic of my relationships have changed.  My sweet, bull headed three year old is a little less bull headed these days and a lot more sweet!  Our home has always been filled with love, but these days I can feel the love busting out of our shutters.  All because mama adjusted her attitude.

The old saying, "if mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy" has a lot of truth in it.  As women, we really do control the dynamic of our homes most of the time.  What is your attitude like today?  Like me, could it use a little adjusting?  Could you be a little more patient, a little less demanding?  If so, give it over to Jesus and you will see a true transformation.

Will you still mess up?  Absolutely!!  The only perfect man walked on water, and last I checked that certainly was not me!  I'll give you an example, last Saturday we headed out to the river to go fishing.  It was a very hectic day.  I went to a craft sell that morning, then we headed to the river for the day, and we finally had a t-ball game that we needed to leave for by 6.  We lost track of time a little while fishing, and we were in a rush (never a good thing for someone who is trying to practice patience!).  Jacob was standing outside, and he said, "OOOOOOOOHHHHHH!!!!  I gotta pee pee."  Quickly I was trying to tell him to stand behind the tree (it was a true emergency, there was no hope for making it to the potty!) because we didn't want to show everyone his wee wee.  Well, he took that literally.  Spread his legs, without pulling his pants down, and peed all over himself.  Did I mention we were in a hurry???  

I ran in, got a towel, got him back in and in the tub.  I get him out of the tub, and start making plates for my little family to eat before we headed out for our next adventure for the day.  Wayne's Uncle Ralph kept making comments about Wayne fishing.  Fishing.  Last I checked he was suppose to be putting the boat up so we could leave.  Did I mention we were in a hurry???

I was about to die of thirst, OK maybe not die, so I turned to get a glass of tea.  While I turned my head, my sweet little wobbly one year old knocked over a full plate of spaghetti.  All over himself.  All over the counter.  All over the dog, which the little piggy started trying to eat it off of!!  And Uncle Ralph was still exclaiming, "Wayne is still fishing!"  DID I MENTION WE WERE IN A HURRY????

As you can imagine, my frustration level was to the max.  I kinda lost it and went completely crazy got a little irritated.  Wayne pulls up and looks at me and says, "What's wrong?"  It was written all over my face.  We were suppose to be leaving at that exact moment, and I had two boys that had not eaten (minus the spaghetti off of the dog) and were running around in their skimpies.  Oh boy.  We I was a mess.  I walked outside.  Took a breather.  Walked back in, laughed it off, and the tornado that was my family managed to get out of the door.  Funny thing was, after all of that rushing, the game was called because of a storm.  :)

We're all human, we're all going to mess up.  I'm so thankful His mercies are new every morning.  And one and three year olds have a short memory span!