It's Your Choice

Yesterday was one of those days that I woke up and as my feet hit the floor I was on my way to discipline my 2 1/2 year old daughter. Oh I'm sure some of you moms can relate, or maybe you just have perfect children and I am instantly envious of you. This "meltdown", as I like to call them, was over milk and cheerios. I won't bore you with the details. I didn't even have time to brush my teeth and I was threatening a time out. Oh how I love those mornings! The day seemed to continue in this pattern. Funny thing was that my husband and I had signed up for a parenting class at a local church and that evening happened to be the first day of the class. If we had any doubt in our minds about taking this class, well the Lord was reassuring me all day long that this was the right thing to do! lol. ☺

Anyways, I was instantly in a pretty sour mood from the moment I woke up. I mean, why wouldn't I be? Who wants to wake up to a meltdown before they have even had a cup of coffee? I heard once that the first five minutes of your day can easily set the tone. Well that couldn't have rung more true. By afternoon I was fed up. I needed a recharge. A nap. Sawyer, my 9 month old, went down at his typical time for his first nap of the day and I then got Addy ready for her nap. I had my heart set on this overlap of the two naps that the last few days had panned out so well. My downtime. Well, my precious hour of time did not happen. As I was laying Addy down, Sawyer woke up. Ahhhh!!! There went my nap! I was irritable and couldn't shake my mood. On top of it, my computer, for whatever reason, would not turn on. It went through the start up mode about a zillion times and would never go past that point. Frustrated, I just shut it off for good and said forget it. There would be no blogging for me.

As the day turned into evening and I was getting ready to go to the parenting class, a phrase kept coming to mind. It's your choice. It's your choice.. It's your choice... As I think back on this now just 24 hours later I know exactly what that meant. I was choosing to stay in the mood I was in. I chose it from the moment I woke up. I felt I DESERVED to be in that mood because of how my day started. I'm honestly glad my computer wouldn't turn on. I still have no idea why this was the case, but it was a good thing because at that point I would have probably used this post as an outlet for my frustration rather then something to encourage others. Wasn't I the one that just posted a few days ago Ephesians 4:29, "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen." Yes, that was me. Nevermind the fact that I honestly did not have the time yesterday to do it and if I did choose to post it would have meant sacrificing time with my family.

It's your choice is a phrase that I think I should try to remember every morning. It can be applied to so many different aspects of my day. Another way I have looked at this phrase is with my recent choice to not be on Facebook. Since I have been Facebookless I have been much more productive. Well, that's not entirely because I eliminated Facebook. Yes, eliminating Facebook has given me more time in which to choose to do things, but I could easily have gotten up the past few days and although not gone on Facebook, sat around, played with my kids all day and not got anything else done around the house that needed to get done. We always have this choice. Eliminating Facebook just so happened to be my catalyst. I love that word. Catalyst...defiined as an agent that provokes or speeds significant change or action. 

As for yesterday, I did choose to be in a rotten mood and therefore that was the catalyst to the rest of my day going in the same direction. And this was all over milk and cheerios?! Makes me laugh today. Thank goodness for God's grace. What if something truly significant happened that actually warranted me to have a bad day. I think even in the grand scheme of things we can choose how we want to respond and it starts with the little things. You will be happy to know that thankfully, I did end up snapping out of my mood after leaving the first night of this amazing parenting class that I will blog about in another post. 


Speaking of it being my choice, I'm going to now choose to put down this can of sour cream and onion Pringles that I have practically polished off during this post and go eat something substantial. ♥