There has been a lot of snow around here lately. The last week of school before Winter break was scheduled to begin, it started snowing halfay through. So, there were two 2-hour-late starts and then lo and behold, school ended up being closed for Thursday and Friday giving the boys an extra two days of Christmas break!
Here we are on the eve before the boys are scheduled to return to school and guess what …. it’s snowing again! I actually don’t know that the boys are super excited about this lovely little turn of events. I think they were kind of looking forward to having school to break up all the snow monotony they’ve been dealing with for the last two and a half weeks.
You see, the snow NEVER went away! We just continued to get more and more as we headed to Christmas. It stopped snowing long enough for us to dig our way out on Christmas Eve and Christmas day, but we actully experienced the first White Christmas in about 20 years or so in our area … thus the first white Christmas ever for ANY of our sons.
It’s funny how life works out though. As a kid, you want nothing more than a snow day once in a while and a White Christmas is a dream come true. Let’s face it, even as an adult, it’s easy to get caught up in the nostalgia of having a White Christmas!
What happens though when the one thing you’ve dreamed of and hoped for comes true, but lots of things that you didn’t expect happen in the process? Sure, the things that I’ve mentioned are great, but my children learned first hand that sometimes there is a little difference between the dream and the reality.
For instance, having a snow day right before Christmas break was scheduled to begin was super exciting, but now that they are ready to go back, they aren’t nearly as happy to see the snow start falling again. The roads had finally been cleared and they were beginning to get excited for a bit of a change (mostly my 3rd and 4th grade boys).
Also, because of our wonderful white Christmas, many packages that were scheduled to arrive the Friday through Monday before Christmas didn’t arrive in time. Since we live in an area that doesn’t routinely see a lot of snow, especially not the quantity we had (or still have), the delivery companies in this area simply didn’t have a clue what to do. In fact, though USPS did make deliveries most days especially up to Christmas, it took UPS ’till THIS past Friday (Jan. 2nd) to deliver everything to us (including my parents’ gift) and we still haven’t seen Fed Ex who has our oldest sons’ one gift (was scheduled to arrive the Saturday before Christmas).
Again, it amazes me how often we find that the things we dreamed about and hoped for aren’t exactly what we expected in the end. I don’t think that this is a lesson easily learned either, after all we definitely still do this as adults. We hope and dream for things that seem out of reach, then when we find a way to get to them there may be consequences that we didn’t think about or expect at all!
The great thing is that, as simplistic as all this may sound to some, as a mom these little events can completely alter the attitude or course of an entire day in our family. I’m not the perfect mom ….. not by a VERY long shot …. so I need a lot of help in the patience and gentleness department. I do not like beginning any day on the wrong foot with a bad attitude, but it happens.
Thankfully, even in these “little” things, I can go to Christ and once again lay them at His feet asking for help! Boy do I need that!
Are you facing some unexpected results in life this week? Maybe your family has a lot of things on the schedule (I know mine does), maybe you or one of your children are struggling with a negative attitude right now.
Can I encourage you to simply take it to God? Spend a few extra minutes each day and read one chapter from the Bible. Before you do though, spend a moment in prayer and ask God to speak to your heart through what you read in His word. Maybe even write it down afterward so that you can refer to it through the day or a few months later to see how far you’ve come.
This little act that probably takes less than 15 minutes out of your day can change your life! Now THERE’S a Resolution – one you know will absolutely, beyond any doubt change your life for the better!
I wish you all great blessings this week!