Small Success Thursday

This week, the Lenten resolution got harder and harder and harder.  I do know it's because the personal gritch doesn't want to lose.  She even makes playing into a chore.  Over the weekend, I played games. I ignored dishes and laundry.  I swallowed my irritation when I would discover a mess.  And all of that got me at the end of the weekend was upset.   I mean, I'd done what I was supposed to do.   But I'd done it for the wrong reasons; like chores to be checked off.  I hadn't played to play, I'd played instead of, or rather in hopes of, then getting everyone to do what I wanted, to tidy up. 

It's a petty pesky demon that personal gritch and she prefers that I go around saying, "I love you because" rather than doing "Beause I love you." 

Fortunately, we do not go into the desert alone. So this week I:

1) made it to my daughter's orientation for her high school. She got accepted and a scholarship last week. It was wonderful and sure made those four years sound like more fun than I remember.

2) Got not a yes but it wasn't a no, from a publishing company that asked me to put together a proposal and an outline for a book.  

3) Cleaned every kid's room one day and when one kid asked why, "Because I love you."

4) Made a list and a goal, one book a month.  Finishing up February's book. (It was designed to get me to finish the February book so I can start on March's selection). 

5) Wrote several pieces, some of which are still too raw and too personal to share.

6)  Recognized that all of this, even the parts we don't like, is supposed to be done, "Because I love you." and that again, this lesson must be beaten into my brain because it slips the moment a dish gets broken, a cup spilled or a homework assignment asks too much.   So I'm repeating to myself when we get hip deep in the mundane, "Because I love you." over and over again.

Have a Because I love you moment? Go share it at Family and Faith Live!