Plaster of Paris

I love children, particularly my own. There are times, though, when I wish I could loan them out for the afternoon on Freecycle to some kind family that appreciated all that pent up creativity and energy.

My second princess, today, decided to dust her room, Amelia Bedelia fashion. With plaster of paris. Oh, and she thought including her sister in the process, both dusting and being dusted, was a great idea and a shining way to SHARE. Don't get me wrong. I love when they choose to share. But today, and with plaster of paris? AGH! After I vacuumed everything, wiped down as much as I could find (Did I find everything?) and scrubbed two tiny white girls in the tub, grumbling all the while, I tossed the crowd of them into bed. And here I sit. My hands are wrinkled and dry - about 2 weeks of deep conditioning night treatments might get them back from old lady condition.

It is days like this that I feel alone and tired. I feel unappreciated and wonder if giving up my shining career (honestly, it was fueled with potential) was REALLY the best choice. I feel entitled to complain and grumble, be grumpy and antagonistic. I want to give up, call my husband to come home, and go back to bed - or on a trip to California.

I am reminded of a MUCH greater person who could have felt this way. Jesus gave up heaven - being in the presence of God's glory at all times - to come here. He took on a body that was small and human, potentially ill, and easily harmed. He came to show us the way to know God... to talk to Him... to make things just like they had been in the Garden, so long ago, when people walked and talked with their Maker. Jesus came to BE THE WAY. And all the people around Him did was fight over who was greatest, misunderstand what He was trying to tell them, value money more than people and push children away because they thought Jesus was WAAAY TO IMPORTANT to take time out for them. During all of that Jesus lived His life with love, kindness, and with a tenderness and humility that drew people - and children - to himself.

Jesus did it... Overcame sin and selfishness for me. He died so that I would be free from the restraints sin puts on me. The way I live will either reflect that or cast shame on me because I am not aware of the price paid for the freedom I have.

Ephesians 3:16-19
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

I can love these children who mess things up sometimes. I can be patient with them and let them know they are much more important than things or dinner or carpet or wasted plaster of paris.