Tags
appearance, family, laughter, Love, perspective, rest, weary
We just finished our first “show week” in the wonderful world of dramatic theatre.
Yes, we are still alive, but barely. 🙂
Our beautiful daughter did a fantastic job with her fun roll as the Baby Kangaroo in Seussical Jr. performed by Act One. She loved it!
We did too; it was thrilling to see her on stage and having so much fun, but we are also….t-i-r-e-d.
After a week of dress rehearsals followed by 5 shows, we got up this morning for church and left a little early afterwards to take our gymnast son to his first meet of the season. Four fabulous hours of monitoring young children, sitting on bleachers, and cheering for our son.
The cheering was fun and seeing his literally breath-taking, heart-stopping routines is always exciting, but we are also very…….t-i-r-ed.
We made it home from the meet in a mad downpour of chilly rain, the kids pulled out leftover pizza from last night and oatmeal from this morning for a fast dinner as my man got ready to lead his small group of 6th grade boys in their small group study.
The kitchen isn’t pretty.
Lego projects cover the family table.
Chaos is everywhere.
Our 5 year old sheds her clothes to dance in a tutu, our 3-year-old shrieks loudly because he can, and our 7 year old is oblivious to it all as she reheats her pizza.
Even though we are incredibly e-x-h-a-u-s-t-e-d,
this is home,
it’s our family,
and as my dream guy sits down at the piano to play a song and sing some crazy, made-up lyrics that make us all laugh, my heart overflows and I revel in the bliss of our own kind of “perfection”.
Perfect isn’t the house we live in, the schedules we keep, our appearance to others, or even the ministries we devote our lives to, it’s the ability to step back, huddle up, and dance and laugh together because we just love each other.
I know first-hand that not every home dances with laughter. Even our own doesn’t all the time. Sometimes we don’t handle the chaos well and we turn on each other instead of leaning in together, but when laughter takes over the weary, hugs win over frustration, and we focus on the important rather than the insignificant, well, it’s as perfect as perfect gets this side of Heaven.
These sweet moments don’t “just happen” or magically fall together on a whim, it takes an intentional decision on someone’s part. Tonight, it was my husband who chose to play piano and sing crazy instead of allowing weariness to win in the form of frustration. Sometimes all it takes is one person deciding to engage with laughter instead of annoyance.
Nothing diffuses high tensions like a little humor.
We’ve learned that even in the middle of marital conflict, if one of us can step away enough to intentionally see the big picture of our relationship instead of the tiny details of the momentary argument, we can make the other person smile or even smirk. It changes the flavor of the moment and hits the reset button like nothing else.
My husband and oldest left for their small groups, 2 kids started watching a show while they finished their pizza and oatmeal, 2 started a dance party in my room, and I snuggled into a blanket to enjoy the moment while ignoring the massive mess in the kitchen because, at the end of the day, relationships are what matter the most. The dishes will still be there tomorrow (even though the mess will have magically grown somehow…), and hopefully, when I tackle that mess, I’ll remember that the disorder is there because I chose relationships instead of dish bubbles tonight.
And just maybe that will remind me to have a graceful attitude instead of a grumpy one. 🙂