Beautiful

As much as motherhood brings out the best in you, it can also bring out the ugly. We've all been there. We all are there. On a daily basis we serve and give and do and on a daily basis we have to fight the urge to do what we want, to be selfish, to yell, to be absolutely as ugly as we all can be.

It seems that I am constantly getting on to my kids for the same things that I do myself. "STOP YELLING!" I will often find myself yelling at them. "Share with your sister," I will command while I secretly pop another treat in my mouth. "You better change that attitude or I will," I threaten while grumbling under my breath about the miserable attitudes I have to put up with all the time, and why does it always have to be this way, and boo hoo poo poo pity party for me.

I get discouraged by the ugliness I see in myself and that comes out so frequently. I hate the selfish part of me that doesn't want to stop what I am doing to wipe another bottom, or that gets upset that my husband doesn't help me more after working a 12 hour or more work day (really?! I'm a jerk.) or that wishes to just have a day to do anything I want to without having to deal with three little kids and everything that they need. I despise those times when my so called need-to-do list trumps my ought-to-do list that includes love on these four precious people in my home and just be with them. 

And then a reminder comes along and it goes something like this, "You make beautiful things out of the dust. You make beautiful things out of us." Only God can take ugly ole me, and make it beautiful. In the dust that is my sinful human nature, God can make and grow a lovely garden. 

Frizzled and frazzled, bags under the eyes, sinful and selfish and mean. Swept into a pile, dust. Sprinkle with Love, water with Forgiveness and watch. A fragrant bloom emerges. Beauty from the dust. 

Click on this link and Enjoy