Mama had a come apart.....

Have you ever known you were about to enter into a stressful situation? You prepare: I'm going to do it this way and have this attitude and if plan A doesn't work I'll try plan B. I did all of that when it came to giving Madeline her medicine this morning. You all saw my plan. I was creative and had it all orchestrated to play out like that Spoon Full of Medicine scene in Mary Poppins.

At first things started out pretty good. She spit it out and we were positive and kept trying. I smiled and was encouraging and felt pretty good we had this thing. About 30-45 minutes into trying, that Marry Poppins turned into a red-eyed, yelling lunatic - mama had a come apart! Think about being at the vending machine and the darn thing just won't take your $1 bill. So what do you do? You straighten the bill out, rub it against the machine to get all the creases out, say a prayer and try again, and again, and again...because you are NOT leaving there without that snickers bar!

This has to be done today! Do you hear me? TODAY! You will not watch tv, or play with your iPad or go to school until this pill is swallowed!!!! 

I stomped, I yelled, I fussed, I made sad faces, I threw up my hands, I cried - it was quite the tantrum. After the dust settled, I felt like a complete failure. I went into this with the best intentions and completely lost it. On the way to take her to school, I told her that I was so sorry for yelling and asked for her forgiveness. Luckily, she said "ok" and held my hand. 

For some reason, I had gotten it into my head that this pill had to be swallowed today or it would never ever happen and she would never ever be able to swallow pills for the rest of her life. When I look at it on paper, that is one of stupidest sentences I have ever written. 

1. She is 5.

2. She has never swallowed a pill before - this is all new.

3. The texture of the pill gets sticky once wet.

In the middle of the tantrum, none of those things mattered - MY needs were the only thing I cared about. When it was all over, I called my mama (she is a pretty amazing lady) and she said these words to me. When it comes to "this has to be done now", you can apply that to cleaning the house, or grocery shopping, or anything else - just not people. Instead of looking at her and saying You know what, Madeline, let's try again later.....I made it about what I wanted done in that moment. This is something I am going to marinate on for quite awhile, because I'm sure this can be applied to other areas of my life. People matter more than my agenda.

Tomorrow is another day and I'm so thankful His mercies will be new once again.