Gratitude Friday...

Let's just get the confession portion of this post out of the way.  

It's been one of THOSE weeks.

There's been a fair amount of crying.  Some even by the kids.  

Cooler temps are here.  Just a couple of hours first thing in the morning.  Nothing major.  But enough for a sweater on the way to school or even a random day of long sleeves.  Long sleeves and sweaters have prompted a rash of crazy meltdowns with claiming of SCRATCHY and TOO TIGHT and IT'S ON MY NECK.  

My usual tactic is to tell her to change.  Heavens.  Life is too short to wear uncomfortable clothes.  Despite the fact that those same clothes were NOT AT ALL scratchy or too tight or touching her neck, say...last week.  

But, in all transparency, I do tend to stare at her with what I can only assume is a look of sheer awe and confusion.  

We're talking about clothes here.  Clothes.

My 38 year old self can't help but think, "Honey, you're a female.  You're gonna struggle with clothes that are too tight or scratchy or any number of crazy uncomfortable things for the rest of your days."  

Of course, I don't say that.  Let her figure those JOYS out all on her own.  And, really, at this point in my life, I'm totally on board with comfort in clothing options.  So I get it.  I just don't get the meltdown.  

Change clothes.  Let's move on.

But she doesn't.  

Rhys, on the other hand, is a SHINING STAR toddler.  

Which is to say, he's a complete manic.  One minute, inconsolable because, ohhhhh, his foot hurts after jumping from a bench and landing wrong.  Five seconds after he's screamed bloody murder and scared every parent within ear shot, he's squirming out of my lap saying, "Noffing hurts, Momma!"

Awesome.

We're still trying to reign in his temperament.  He handles frustration with hitting.  And he plays by biting.  

Neither one of those happen all the time but they've both happened multiple times this week.  

All that might not have been too upsetting or unnerving if there hadn't been a press conference almost every morning this week discussing a deadly virus.  

I found myself getting angry and fearful for absolutely no good reason.  Blame was being assigned and I was getting more and more frustrated.  It was completely irrational.  Especially out of character for me.  As a realist, life is what it is and I almost never assign intent.  

And believe me when I say, I knew exactly what was happening.  The enemy will find any foothold and, really, every foothold.  And he hit me head on this week.  

It was one of those weeks when I was repeating, "God is bigger, God is bigger, God is bigger..."

Both bigger than my children and a virus.  

So this week, I am grateful God IS bigger.  Grateful what I feel and what is true are two different things.  What I feel is inadequacy.  Fear.  Helpless.  What is true is God is sovereign.  Powerful.  Merciful.  

And yes, He is bigger than scratchy sweaters too.