You can't judge a day by a moment

I hope this is a lesson I am also learning, I think overall I'm doing much better at not falling into this way of thinking with the Lord's help.

Mrs. Gore's Diary

August 9 at 3:19pm · 

I think one of the most beneficial things I've learned in my ten years of motherhood is that you can't judge a day by a moment.

This morning, I sat down with my coffee and my Bible with hopes to start my day off quietly with the Lord. That happens sometimes...often, actually!...and I leave my chair inspired and ready to start our day.

T'wasn't the case this morning.

I had broken up more fights by the time I FINALLY made it through my chapter than I have in two weeks, and I'd heard enough crying and whining to make my own ears throw a fit. And my ears were telling my attitude to just go ahead and follow suit.

But, praise God, as I am growing in Christian maturity, I'm learning to control those emotions...to speak to myself rather than to listen to myself...and sure enough, though I had to grit my teeth and power through the noise and frustration and play the grown-up by instructing these children rather than giving in and joining in the emotional hullabaloo, there came a time in our day when peace was reigning and things were running relatively smoothly once more.

I DID get to sit down at some point, and the interruptions were normal and didn't chip away at my soul. ;)

As moms, we often fall into the pessimistic habit of judging our days by our moments. Or even our WEEKS by our moments.

"It's been a crazy day."

"It's been a terrible day."

"The kids have been awful all. day. long."

"THIS ENTIRE WEEK HAS BEEN INSANE!!!"

And though this sort of summarizing might occasionally be legitimate, more often than not, we are speaking from the emotions that we currently have and from the moment we just walked through.

This is the scene that many of our husbands come home to at the end of the day, and when they ask how things have gone, with shoulders slumped, we sum it all up with one word: "awful". Or "terrible". Or "crazy". Or "chaotic". I regret the many days of my past when my husband came home to this sort of a wife and this sort of an environment.

So have you had a crazy afternoon? Have your children been railing against one another for the past forty minutes? Is it that lovely "witching hour" that we've all noticed is totally a real thing?

Take a step back and survey the many moments leading up to this point. It's highly likely that the entire day has NOT been bad. And it doesn't mean that the rest of the day is going to be bad. And it sure doesn't mean that the week is bad and the month is bad and life is bad and EVERYTHING is bad!!!

Unless, of course, we allow ourselves to get sucked in to the attitude cesspool and end up bringing the whole house down with our defeat.

Take a deep breath. Deal with the current emotions and misbehaviors. Aim valiantly for maturity. And when your husband asks how your day has gone, think before speaking and really be truthful.

More likely than not, you'll be able to say "we've had our ups and downs, but it's been a pretty good day!"

And if you haven't...if you've really had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day...maybe he'll actually believe you because you've gotten out of the bad habit of constantly summarizing your days by your moments.

And then I vote that he should take you out for some ice cream.

You can tell him I told you that. 😘🍦🍨