Reality Check

Here's my sis' latest devotion. It is quite timely if you check out her "Nail Polish Nightmare" post on her blog at www.afirefighterswife.blogspot.com. You'll totally see God's sense of humor!

Reality Check

Dear Mothers,

A few years ago, I received a HUGE reality check. I had been having a very hard time with my two-year old, Andrew. He kept making these gigantic messes every time I would turn around. I was getting more and more frustrated by the day and found myself getting very angry and being unkind to him. To make a long story as short as possible, we found him hanging one morning by his head on the outside of the top bunkbed rail. He had been that way for hours. When my oldest son found him and brought him to me, his jaw was flattened and his head deformed. I thought to myself as I was calling for help, “Our lives will never be the same again”. I thought maybe he had had a stroke or something. God was already working by the time I got up to the hospital. His eye was back in the right place and his jaw was starting to fill out again. The doctor said it was a miracle that he didn’t crush his windpipe. He had his head turned sideways just enough to where his jaw took the brunt of his body weight. Praise the Lord! After all of this had happened I knew the Lord was speaking to me. I prayed and asked to receive what He wanted to teach me. I felt him saying, “Messes are no big deal. Don’t take one moment for granted with these precious gifts I have given to you. In a second they could be gone.” REALITY CHECK! God spared Andrew’s life and answered our prayers and given him a full recovery.

My husband is a firefighter/paramedic. When he comes home in the morning and I sometimes tell him some of the annoying things the kids do, or have a list of complaints ready to fire off of how bad my day was, sometimes he just looks at me and says, “Are the kids breathing? Are they hurt? No? Well, it’s a good day then.” Then he will proceed to tell me of a horrible call he went on. Again, REALITY CHECK!Are your kids warm in the beds? Do they have shelter? Do they have food in their tummies? Yes? Well, then it’s a good day! Think of all the mothers around the world who don’t know what they are going to feed their children for the next meal. Think of the orphans that are sifting through garbage just to survive! We do not have it bad at all, do we? God has blessed this nation, but we grow complacent until we have a reality check!

Stop and thank God right now, for all that you have. Be content with it. Be thankful that God has given you the gift of your children. Do not wait for Him to shake you out of your complacency! It’s not fun, trust me! Ask Him to teach you to “number your days correctly.”

God loves you so very much! He is so merciful! He is worthy of praise!

From One Mom to Another,

Stacie