I have a hard time with messes…I won’t lie!!  Being a mother of three I am surrounded by messes…all day long! It gets so old.  I have all too often “lost my cool” over toys strewn throughout the house, messy rooms, or crayon art on the hallway walls!  This morning was no exception!!  A friend of mine (who does not have kids) had me over for a game night not too long ago.  When I walked into her beautiful apartment, my jaw dropped….it was just so beautiful it sparkled!!  There were real candles glittering on the coffee table…yes, real ones!  There was a plush WHITE carpet with the straightest, most beautiful vacuum lines I’d ever seen!  It even smelled like flowers!!!  My house does NOT smell like flowers.  Ugh!!

When my oldest daughter was about four, I was having one of those rough days where everything (and I mean everything) was going wrong.  My house, on top of everything else, was a complete mess.  Without me noticing, she walked into the living room with her milk and set it on the end table by the couch.  You can see where this is going, right?  Within a minute, she had knocked it over with such force that it hit the wall with a splash!  I heard it and came racing in to see milk dripping down the wall, and quickly soaking into the carpet.  I’m not kidding when I tell you that I literally began to cry…hard.  It was the last straw!  My four year old child stood watching as her adult mommy began to cry like a baby…not one of my finer moments.  It was milk!!  WAH!!

STILL CRYING, I began to clean it up.  Almost immediately I heard the Lord so clearly speak to my heart, “Are you crying over spilled milk, Tami?”  Talk about turning tears into laughter!  “Yes, Lord!  I am crying over spilled milk.” In His sweet way, He assured me He saw my frustrated heart.  It was as if He was saying, “I can help…if you’ll let me.”  I surrendered the rest of my day to Him, let go of the need for perfect, and the frustration left along with the tears.

Today, I’m not going to stress over the mess!! 🙂 There are bigger things to cry about than messy rooms and spilled milk. I’m going to think about Zephaniah 3:17, “The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves.  He will take great delight in you; in His love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing!”