"Marying" up

Not as in weddings and choosing the best mate.

Think chimney sweeps, nannies and carousels.

What?

One early summer as I sat bemoaning the household management of a home with four small active people, endless loads of laundry, a dishwasher running non-stop and sand and grass clippings mysteriously replicating themselves in every stairstep, corner and crevice of my home, my husband spoke a word of exhortation to me.

Conviction, it really became.

Something I already knew, and really and truly, a word about attitude of mouth and heart alignment.

Sometimes the heart needs to align with the mouth.  Others the mouth needs to echo the heart.  And then there are the times.

The times neither is right or true, and it is time to rewire.  Remodel the inner and outer workings.

What in the world did Jim say?

"Mary Poppins up, Sara".


Lest you think he was mean, disrespectful or degrading in any way, let me assure you, dear reader, he was not.

This was a smiling word from my husband to his helpmeet and wife.  The woman whom he knew needed to be moved from her complaining to rejoicing.  Maybe even just truthful acceptance.

Sometimes I use that very phrase to gird myself.  To "get on with it".

Christmas break, for example.

While I always have lovely expectations and even dreams of how it will look and how lovely it will be, and often those hopes come true, it is also just life that dishes are never-ending, the best laid plans go awry and things break, fall apart and sometimes just get crabby and cranky from too much.

For instance, when your 8th grader promises and works with your help for weeks to come home with no late or missing work for break, and his arrival home coincides with an email indicating...yep.  Missing work.

Grrrrr.

Or, insert whatever scenario here.  Because those scenarios are part of parenting, aren't they?

So here am I and the children the Lord has entrusted to me.  And all is well.  It is more than well.  The truth is that I do delight in them home.  I love Christmas break, summer break and spring break.  Having them here is the best.

And so I recite my exhortation to myself, "Mary Poppins up, Sara.  Mary Poppins up."

I'm a work in progress.  Thank goodness God is never done!