I have a friend that sends me quotes of the day. Early Thursday morning I got the following quote from her, “Take time first thing to visualize an incredible day" by Robin Howard. I was still laying in bed and thought to myself, this is a great way to start the day. I’m going to visualize an incredible day!!! Around 7 a.m. my boys gathered to have family prayer before they headed off to school. One of my boys had willingly taken our dog outside for his morning potty break before family prayer. I was getting ready for the day and often my boys love to curl up in my bed waiting for family prayer. After our family prayer I went over to give the boys a hug as they headed out the door. I looked at my bed and saw that there was dog poop on my sheets and wondered what else it had gotten on. Unfortunately, when my son took our dog outside he ended up stepping in poop in the common lawn area around our home from another dog. My son felt stressed and worried about what had happened and that I might be mad, but as I thought about the quote I read and so many lessons I’ve learned over this last year I thought to myself sheets can be washed, words can’t always be gathered up and taken back. I told him we would wash the sheets and to enjoy his day at school and all was well. He left happy and I felt happy and the sheets came clean. With both of us happy we had the opportunity to help others have an incredible day, to continue to spread the happiness. How often do we look at the poop of the day vs the opportunities to make it an incredible day? How often do we let the poop of others affect us and ruin our day? Or the poop of our day causes us to ruin others’ day? We have the opportunity each day, not only each day, but minute by minute, to decide whether we choose the poop or an incredible day!!!
0 Comments
On Wednesday evening we were at Tanner’s basketball game. We were barely holding the lead so every point counted. One of Tanner’s teammates took a shot and in went the basketball into the hoop. One of the refs held up his fingers to signal a 3 point shot. The scorekeeper only added 2 points to the scoreboard. A parent got up and walked over to ask if they missed putting 1 point on the scoreboard. The other ref clarified and said it was only a 2 point shot. We got down to the end of the game and our team was down by 1 point with just a few minutes left in the game. Our boys rallied and worked hard together and with Tanner having an amazing block our boys ended up winning the game by 1 point. As Covid started last March I was really struggling feeling like I was doing anything productive. I had a community event that I had been working on that was now cancelled. It was going to be the last Career Day that I did at the Junior High and we were pretty much all set and then that was cancelled. Meetings, awards luncheon and the list goes on of things that I was involved with that I had put time into that was now cancelled. Not only that, but my boys and Rick were all home now. So the 6 or 7 hours a day that I had to myself and out in the community being productive and doing things I enjoyed was all gone. We were all just home together and floundering to figure out what’s next - there really wasn’t anything next. As I went to counseling I said to my counselor that I was really struggling, because I didn’t feel I was being productive at all. Honestly I was starting to sleep in more, stay in bed, sit around and honestly was driving myself crazy. My counselor said I wasn’t doing a good job at keeping an accurate score on my scoreboard. I was like well, what is there even to put on the scoreboard??? For reals!!! The reality is I felt I was losing. He pointed out that I woke up. I came to counseling. I took my medication. I was doing well with keeping my glucose numbers in check. I interacted with my boys. I got dressed for the day. I took a walk. I reached out to a friend. Read a scripture. Said a prayer. Didn’t yell at my boys. Applied some small thing that I had learned in counseling. I kept plugging through life despite how difficult things were. Wore a mask. He listed some very simple things that I didn’t think should count at all. Those were just things that I did. He pointed out that I didn’t have to do any of those things, but I chose to. Since that conversation with my counselor I’ve found myself counting my wins. Counting the smallest things as a win! I have a dear friend that I chat with and together we comment back and forth all of the wins we have each day. Not only that, but now my boys have started to point out their wins. Their small successes. When I’m in a meeting or interacting with others I find myself calling out the wins. As we talk to ourselves in a positive manner and recognize the little wins we have a greater power to push through the challenges and to look for the simple wins through the struggles. Just like in that basketball game this week it was just a matter of one point that made the difference for the WIN!!! They didn’t get caught up on the one point that they thought they had with a 3 pointer, but focused on pressing forward and coming out ahead by one point. Each point counts in our lives, be sure to count them and keep your scoreboard up to date for your own personal wins!
|
Cheri HardmanA wife and mother of 4 boys and 2 daughter-in-law, I have spent my entire adult life devoted to my family. I have been busy in their schools, supporting them in all of their school work, sporting events, activities, etc. I spent years heavily involved in the PTA, church callings, etc Life for me has always been overwhelmingly busy. While I thought this was my sanity, the truth is it masked issues - real issues - that I needed to work on to gain true sanity. I am sharing my story in this blog. I do this so that I might be able to help other women find their true sanity Archives
April 2022
|