Patience, Kindness, Gentleness and Juice Boxes

Every once in a while, I have a very good day at the office.

This morning, at 6:15 a.m., after reading his devotion for the day together, I sat patiently on the playroom floor helping OBB put together a huge puzzle featuring Noah’s Ark. We talked about all the animals. We talked about who Noah was. We talked about the ark and the flood. And then, once we had celebrated his success with that puzzle, I had the temerity to pull out another one - this time it was a Curious George puzzle – 3 feet long and made of difficult pieces - and sat next to him, gently encouraging him, NOT doing it for him, while sipping my second cup of coffee. And then we celebrated the completion of that too.

I took my children to a jumpy/bouncy house place for the morning to burn off energy and get out their wiggles. They loved it. I clapped and cheered when OBB went down the big slide. I carried Baby Girl up the slide and smiled to myself when she shrieked with delight as I went down it with her on my lap. I joined my friend Jayda and her kids for lunch at Chick-Fil-A, and when Baby Girl squeezed her juice box too hard and the juice came spurting out of the straw, all over her face and clothes, and the people all around me chuckled, I laughed too. I didn’t even care about it as stood talking to a friend from church at the restaurant, me holding my wet, sticky baby, as she clung to my shoulder and the wetness from her juice-drenched shirt started seeping into mine.

I answered every one of OBB’s relentless questions in the car today. I treated him like an equal – like what he said not only mattered, but was the most interesting observation I had heard all day. Every race car, every motorcycle that was pointed out was given the esteem and laud and honor it was due.

And then there was Wal-Mart. I really outdid myself here. When we walked in, I let OBB play the game with the claw and the animals at the bottom that you know you’ll never actually get. Twice.

When he asked to help me with the grocery shopping, I let him. He picked out and put the bananas in the cart. And then I waited patiently when he spied a scale at his level and picked them back out of the cart and weighed them and informed me that they weighed “free pounds!” I stood by and watched as he placed green beans in the plastic bag – one by one. I let him pick up the glass jars of apple sauce by himself and put them in the cart without holding my hands under them to prevent them from hitting the floor if he should drop them. I stopped to look at every game and toy he wanted to point out to me. I let him run ahead and browse the extensive Toy Story 3 section by himself. And when it came time to check out, I let him pick out the candy of his choice.

Of course, the day was not without one time out, two temper tantrums and a couple of raisings of my voice for good measure. But on most days, when I fall into bed, I think back about everything I wish I had done differently or said more nicely. Today, I was patient and that’s saying quite a lot. Today I was the mother in the grocery store who has stopped her cart in a completely inconvenient spot in the produce section to teach her child about different kinds of apples, forcing other patrons to skirt around her. Today, God gave me the strength to be a happy, carefree, encouraging mom. Today, I was that annoying person who was eliciting groans and sighs from less patient people. And you know what? It felt great.