Today

Last year when I heard it was Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-A I decked my kids out in head to toe cow and took them to Chick-fil-A. I was all about a free meal and they were just the cutest little calves I've ever seen. What I didn't know, was that every other mother in the Monroe area would also bring their calves, along with numerous other cows both old and young. It was a zoo. Or really, I guess it was a cattle farm. Just crazy.

We got our free meals, and I got a tension headache from all the people, noise, difficulty and strain!!

This year I gave myself freedom to say no to something. I said no to CAD. It's not that I don't appreciate cows, or free food, or lunch out with my kids at a good place that I wholeheartedly support. I have finally come to the place where I am just mentally and physically not able to do it all. What would have seemed like the end of the world- missing out on something fun- wasn't all that bad. In fact, I kind of liked our quiet, slow paced peanut butter and jelly lunch safely ensconced in the four walls of our home while the rest of the world stampeeded to Chick-fil-A. It was nice.

Even better, I realized that no permanent damage had been done to my kids by missing a fun event. Nope, I would even say, that perhaps, they were better off for missing. I was in a better mood because I wasn't stressed out, they were in a better mood because they ate a proper meal rather than eating just enough for me to say they can go play, and our day simply ebbed and flowed in it's usual busy way.

I feel like I spend a lot of time worrying about Tomorrow. If I don't do this Today, then Tomorrow this will happen. If Today isn't done this way, then Tomorrow will be all messed up. If I don't give my kids this now, they will grow up unhappy and deprived children. If I don't put Jacob in preschool now, he will never learn to read or write and consequently will grow up and never leave home. If I don't read this book now, then later my kids will hate reading. If I don't do this, then this might happen. What a weighty burden this "if/then" philosophy places on my shoulders.

Time passes so quickly, do I want to spend it in hyperactive prevention mode, or would I rather take Today and enjoy it. Let the Lord worry about Tomorrow. If I do my job right Today, then Tomorrow will take care of itself.

Be free, mothers, to say no, to stay home, to enjoy this 24 hours.


P.S. We will one day rejoin the CAD fun. It just might have to be Tomorrow.