When I wrote yesterday’s post, I knew I’d be accused of being “too heavenly minded and no earthly good.” Yep, I saw it a’ comin’. And I’m sympathetic; truly, I am. I’m a practical kind of gal. To prove my empathy, I offer a little background on yesterday’s post.

My husband recently returned from a two-week business trip and offered to take the children to see snow so that (1) I could have a day of rest and (2) because this will be the last chance for the kids to see snow until who-knows-when. Now, being a nursing mother, I offered to keep eight-month-old Baby Cakes so that the snow adventure could go a little smoother, and plus, having Happy Cakes around is no problem-o. So, like my email friend who began last post, I was a mother of one for the weekend.

I do not know what got into my baby. Happy Cakes must have had too much chocolate in her cake and washed it down with a few gallons of Mountain Dew. She woke up at her regular time of 6 a.m. So far, so good. But things took a turn for the worse when she refused her morning nap. Then, she refused any nap all day long. It was a looooooooooong day. I tried everything and just had to conclude that my 25-pound Butterball was just too afraid that she’d miss a meal if she fell asleep. Whatever the case, it wasn’t pretty.

I prayed in desperation that the day would just end. I was so over it, and so was she. The day ended all right, right on schedule at 12:00 a.m., but Energizer Baby was still up. Maybe I should be more specific in my prayers.

She finally collapsed at 1:05 a.m., but woke up at 6 a.m. to do it all over again. She wasn’t sleeping for almost five hours; she was recharging.

So much for the break.

Now, I know my kids aren’t normal, but in this one aspect, I’d like them to join the throng–sleep. I hear other parents say, ‘Yeah, we’re keeping our kids up late so that they’ll sleep in tomorrow.” Ha. If you put any one of our kids down at a late hour, drug them with sleeping pills, rig up room darkening apparatus, and bribe them to sleep in, they will still get up at dawn. Always. They have an internal jolt that is rigged to twilight. I know this because we try these methods (all except one anyway…) regularly to see if any of our kids have decided to ease up on their aging mother who is having a birthday next week.

Now, I wrote yesterday’s post (about believing what God says about mothering) at midnight after the above adventure with a very unhappy Happy Cakes. Perhaps I left out the how-to’s because I felt ill equipped to offer any insight at that moment. However, even in my delirium, I don’t think that’s why I did it.

I can specifically point to a time where I quit dreaming of life after “this”, and instead, began embracing my calling from God. It did not happen when I read the latest parenting book or someone pulled me aside and told me THE SECRET. No, freedom mothering began when my starving soul quit feasting on the garbage fed to me by well-intentioned, but well-in-error advice givers: fellow mothers caught in Mommy Madness, society-at-large, Oprah, and in some cases, the church. Courage to face the task at hand and embrace the call to motherhood begins with humbly telling the Lord, “You are right. Your Word is true.” It is singing with the Psalmist, “Oh how I love Thy law…” As we discussed yesterday, God declares children to be a blessing and a great reward. The sooner we embrace this truth, the sooner we can deal with the nitty-gritty.

It isn’t wise to get the cart before the horse. We will talk (later this week and next–I have some fun things planned) about how to manage our homes well, but if we believe that God’s blessing on our families are well-disguised burdens, then no amount of practical help will be of value. And I ain’t got time to be spinnin’ my wheels. I have some sleep to catch up on.