courage...
...so yesterday was a day where I met with people all day long from 8:30 - 5:30pm non-stop. To put it bluntly, I was spent. I made a call to my wife after the last meeting and told her I was coming home. Though my body was without life, I told her, "When I come home, I will be a good dad and husband and bring energy to our family." I wanted the accountability to be strong even though I felt weak.
I got home and was helping around the house with some damage control when the pizza finally arrived via delivery. We gathered around the table and I asked who wanted to pray for the food. Both Kami and Aly raised their hands and so I said, "Both of you can pray." Of course, what I meant was they could both pray one following the other. Before I could say another word of direction, they both started to pray simultaneously almost word for word what the other was saying for the first half of the prayer, "Dear Jesus, thank you for the day and that you for the food and thank you for our family..." and then from there is where I started to hold back the tears of laughter. Kami started to pray for random things and Aly in attempts to keep in step with her repeated each of the words Kami was saying a half second behind her. She mumbled and muttered all the things Kami was saying until the final, "amen." Heidi and I laughed...you had to be there.
Then, the girls went into the living room and I shared with Heidi how absolutely exhausted I felt and why. We sympathized with each other, and then I moved to the living room. I felt like I wanted to crash on the couch, but I knew that I should interact with the kids. They had given Heidi fits that day, so I wanted to free her from their life-draining attitudes for just a wee bit. I walked into the living room and said, "Girls, listen to me. I'm only going to say this once to you better pay attention..." They turned toward me and were waiting for the wrecking ball to drop. I continued on, "...tonight we are going to...HAVE FUN, DANCE AND WRESTLE UNTIL WE DROP! THAT'S FINAL!" At first the girls couldn't seem to make sense of the big, bad voice mixing with fun and dancing and that sort of thing...but their eyes finally showed that they got was I had done and they all jumped over on me and we wrestled for a bit. It was fun.
I was spent...but God gave me courage to push through the fatigue and into my family. May He grant me more in the days to come...
I got home and was helping around the house with some damage control when the pizza finally arrived via delivery. We gathered around the table and I asked who wanted to pray for the food. Both Kami and Aly raised their hands and so I said, "Both of you can pray." Of course, what I meant was they could both pray one following the other. Before I could say another word of direction, they both started to pray simultaneously almost word for word what the other was saying for the first half of the prayer, "Dear Jesus, thank you for the day and that you for the food and thank you for our family..." and then from there is where I started to hold back the tears of laughter. Kami started to pray for random things and Aly in attempts to keep in step with her repeated each of the words Kami was saying a half second behind her. She mumbled and muttered all the things Kami was saying until the final, "amen." Heidi and I laughed...you had to be there.
Then, the girls went into the living room and I shared with Heidi how absolutely exhausted I felt and why. We sympathized with each other, and then I moved to the living room. I felt like I wanted to crash on the couch, but I knew that I should interact with the kids. They had given Heidi fits that day, so I wanted to free her from their life-draining attitudes for just a wee bit. I walked into the living room and said, "Girls, listen to me. I'm only going to say this once to you better pay attention..." They turned toward me and were waiting for the wrecking ball to drop. I continued on, "...tonight we are going to...HAVE FUN, DANCE AND WRESTLE UNTIL WE DROP! THAT'S FINAL!" At first the girls couldn't seem to make sense of the big, bad voice mixing with fun and dancing and that sort of thing...but their eyes finally showed that they got was I had done and they all jumped over on me and we wrestled for a bit. It was fun.
I was spent...but God gave me courage to push through the fatigue and into my family. May He grant me more in the days to come...
Comments
Unlike Wayne Hairston I don't have a home based business for you to look at. Sorry.
But I loved that entry. I want to be a Dad like that. Pressing into my family and contributing when I feel like I have nothing to offer. I want to be a freind like that--pressing into my little "c" communities of friends unselfishly. Thanks for sharing that.