Spilled Tea, Messy Kitchen and Ink!

I have had three of the biggest blessings in the past 24 hours. They might not look like blessings, gifts, but they are to me.

Blessing one: I spilled approximately 14 ounces of my tea on the table while we were doing our worship/morning devotions. My beloved pretty planner, our Joshua 1:8 books, my pretty purple bible, my scripture memory booklet and various papers all got wet! We all jumped up grabbing books and towels trying to get things mopped up before they were soaked.

I could feel it rising, frustration, anger. I walked into the bathroom to spread out some papers and I heard the Spirit speak to my heart. “Let the peace of Christ rule in your heart.” I grabbed hold of that and refused to get my feathers ruffled. I was not going to lose my peace over this! I continued to preach peace to myself as we were finishing cleaning up. I was about to say, ‘let’s just be done with worship and go on to school,’ seeing as how we were late already. But something rose up in me and I said, NO, put on another song. We sang ‘Our God is Greater’, and I for one was singing at the top of my lungs. Refusing to let the devil win in this one.

This was beyond HUGE for me. It would usually take much less to cause me to lose my peace. I mean, it is not just the pretty planner, pretty purple bible, Joshua 1:8 books, memory booklet, but also multiple children, squirmy toddler and all that it took to get us to the point of worship in the first place. So yeah, it was a big deal to be able to keep my peace. I was so thankful for the gift of ‘spilled tea’ because I learned that I could keep my peace. I can choose peace. Nothing is more important than keeping my peace in that situation.

The next blessing was when I woke up Tuesday morning needing to be out the door by 8:15 for a dentist appointment on cleaning/piano day. Now, you need to understand, Tuesdays can be stressful as I have put a burden of my own choosing on myself. I want the house cleaned (dusted/vacuumed kind of clean) by noon, at which time our piano teacher comes. When I walked out into the kitchen it was a disaster. I would much prefer to have the kitchen clean by the time we start our day, and especially so on TUESDAY! I was not going to be there for cleaning day and that meant giving up a whole bunch of control!

(this is exactly what it looked like BEFORE we started our day!)

I decided to take a bunch of pictures, thank God for the mess and children who will clean it up (hopefully) and not lose my peace over the house! I did have to fight for my peace a little each time I walked in the kitchen as I was getting ready, but I continued to preach peace to myself, and I really did just let it go. Victory number two!! This really is huge for me, ladies, HUGE!

Blessing number three. I was on my bed working on my gratitude journal, of all things, and had my Elijah (age 3) bouncing all over the bed while I was writing, cutting and gluing. I tried to encourage him to go be with daddy, but he wanted to be with me, and seeing as he is not so much the cuddly type, I relented. Which, by the way, is enough to cause me to lose my peace. After a very long time I look over at him, right next to me mind you, and see that he has written all over my comforter with an ink pen! I did freak out for a second, but couldn’t help but laugh. He was right here next to me! I didn’t even know he was doing it. I chose to not lose my peace again. I thought, ‘ink usually comes out, and if not, I’ll just flip it over’ To add injury to insult, he apparently wrote all over a pillowcase also. Who watches this boy?! Oh, that was my job!

I tried to keep a straight face and pretend like I was crying, but I couldn’t help it, I burst out laughing so hard. JOY! I was experiencing joy. It really didn’t matter in the big scheme of life and I didn’t lose my peace!

Ladies, I am not sure if I expressed it well, but these incidents could almost be documented as miracles! Really and truly miracles, at least for me. We really can choose to let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts. I am sure I will fail at this in the future, but these three ‘gifts’ are very dear to my heart because they showed me that I DO have victory. I CAN choose peace! I CAN choose joy!

BTW, when I came home from the dentist at about 10:30, the house was in amazing shape. It actually was done and in better shape than it usually is at that time on Tuesdays! Praise the Lord, added bonus!

A late addition: Before this post even got posted I walked out of my bedroom with my tea and spilled screaming hot tea on my hand and in my shoes. Can you believe it? I wonder if it’s the tea? lol

Relentlessly Pursuing Peace