Time to breathe

I find myself taking a moment to inhale and then exhale deeply this morning. I was up for the better part of the night with Ben who now thinks that night should be time taken to spend more awake than asleep. Then I heard Ronnie wake up at 5:oo just to realize that he had over slept. ( which he NEVER does) Ben woke up again shortly after that so I decided to go ahead and get up so I could get some things done before the kids wake up. Well one would think that my kids have radar on me that signals once I am up and out of bed because next thing you know they are up and knocking on my door! Now maybe for some it would be nice for your kids to get up and start getting ready earlier than usual, but that is not the case here. The more time my kids have in the morning the more the arguing breaks out! And as if that wasn't enough... my dryer must be going out, since the clothes I had put in to dry LAST NIGHT were still not dry this morning. Yea, that's all I need. My kids to not stop arguing and now the clothes they were wanting to wear are not dry yet! Perfect! What a wonderful day this is shaping up to be!And then, instead of blow drying my hair, I had to blow dry the pants! ( by this point I had to remind myself that I need to give thanks in and for EVERYTHING)Now most of you have probably already heard me complain over the phone about how I have to hand wash my dishes by hand right now, so this is just great news for me! I have been wanting to return to the "simple life", but this is not exactly what I had in mind. I mean, come on, blow drying clothes and washing dishes by hand is not my idea of simple!!! Definetly not for a family of 10 anyway. So now it was time for the bus, the kids start walking out the door I am trailing behind with Eric still in the doorway and I hear Jacob shout "the bus is coming" so now they start to take off running well what would happen next?! Eric slips right on the sidewalk and starts to cry. I immediately have and show compassion for him helping him up and asking if he is ok. but I couldn't help but THINK to myself.. of course this would happen right now, is there any better time than when you have had such a cruddy morning and now you are running late. But he brushed it off and thankfully made it to the bus with the others. I walked back to the house letting out a big sigh and thought.. I need to breathe now! I come inside take a deep breath sit at the computer for my devotional and here is the devotional verse for the day...

1 peter 1:6-7 "You are extremely happy about these things, even though you have to suffer different kinds of trouble for a little while now.The purpose of these troubles is to test your faith as fire tests how genuine gold is. Your faith is more precious than gold, and by passing the test, it gives praise, glory, and honor to God."

The questions I had to ask myself was , Am I passing the test? Just when will I get it? No matter the what it is about the how. How am I going to handle this situation so that I pass the test in the end? Am I going to be found genuine?


I can breathe now!