What Consitutes a Bad Day?

So many times I find myself grumbling, getting stressed out, and maybe even shedding a few tears because I've had a "bad day". What does a bad day look like in my house? Here are some things that have made my day go downhill...

My two year old wakes up with a poopy diaper that leaked onto the crib, then has three potty-training accidents that involve poop in one day. Josiah gets up all night wanting to nurse. The house isn't clean in the morning, and the kitchen is a mess from the night before. Then, maybe I drop my cell phone in water, or find that our computer shorted out. Or maybe for dinner the pork-chops that I set on the table weren't cooked the whole way through so I had to go back and totally reheat them. Except for it's Wednesday night and we don't have any time before Awana to do it. So dinner consists of odds and ends we scavenge from the fridge. Or maybe Josiah pees all over me in my church clothes right before we are supposed to walk out the door.

These have all happened to me. Not all in the same day, but sometimes it's pretty close. I feel sorry for myself. I vent to my husband when he gets home and want him to feel sorry for me because "I've had a bad day." I might even make a post about it on facebook, hoping to get some sympathy from other Moms.

Then I see a Mom at my eye doctor. She is Jewish. She has two kids, both with retinoblastoma. I can't imagine the grief she is going through. I know first hand what it's like to have cancer. But I can't imagine how hard it is to see your baby go through that. To have to hold him down while doctors look at him. He sounds so pitiful even the nurse is crying in the hallway. He's only a few months old. He shouldn't have to deal with that. And your 6 year old daughter has the same thing. As if one child wasn't enough. You want to take the cancer on yourself, but of course you can't. You see them dwindling away before your eyes and are powerless to stop it.

That, my friends, is a bad day.

Or perhaps your husband got off the phone with a family member. One who lost his job. The bills are coming due, and the unemployment check is nonexistent, and somehow they are going to have to survive. He has children depending on him. But he doesn't know what else to do besides keeping on looking for a job.

That is a bad day.

You may have a friend. You know, the Mom of two who was just diagnosed with terminal cancer. Her days are going to be spent writing letters to her kids for all the major events in their life so that, even in a small way, she can be a part of their life after she is gone. Her days are filled with last-ditched efforts to save her life, and special moments with her family, awaiting the inevitable.

That constitutes a bad day.

I have had a lot of "bad things" happen to me lately. I know how hard it is to have a good attitude about really tough things that happen in your life. But please remember that someone out there has it worse.

Let the hard days and the bad news make you more thankful for the good times and the good news., and the average day-to-day problems of life. Rejoice that you are alive to have problems. Rejoice that you have children alive to make messes.

Throughout these past few months, my whole perspective has changed as to what really constitutes a bad day.

Little things like blowouts, owies, burned food, shorted computers, and misbehaved kids are actually blessings.

That Mom of two, who is terminally ill, would gladly trade places with you, even on your worst day, if it meant she would be healthy and able to care for her children.

Moms, be thankful for what you have.

Are you really having a bad day?