what we can learn from the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days

my 8th baby–blayne lewis

Terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days.

Us moms get them a lot. Our beautifully planned, planner pages of all we wanted to accomplish personally, and for the home, dashed and done. I’m talking full-blown, scratched out, need to start over, days.

I am a mom of many–eight to be exact, and five of them are boys. Yeah, five boys. And if you have any kind of an imagination I’m sure you can get the gist of what my days can look like. I have crazy “bad” days and moments all the time.

Let me give you an example of a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day: it’s a day when I have high-hopes and a big, full day planned ahead, and then my toddler decides to wake up way too early. Because he’s decided to rise and shine with me, he’s cranky and clingy. So my plans, for not only devotions are dashed, but the laundry, the dishes and my shower. The toddler now decides to take a nap earlier then normal, so any errands we were going to run are now pushed to another day. Now this toddler who takes his nap early, wakes groggy, and is grumpy–again. Nice. What else can go wrong? A lot. From toothpaste squeezed out onto the floor, boys wrestling and girls crying, you can see how this qualifies as a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

But you know what? I embrace them now. You know why?

My betterment.

Yes, the big, bad, horrible days where you just want to jump in bed and put the covers over your head are just as a part of your life and betterment as the good days. We can learn from these bad days. Take them. Embrace them and not let them get the best of you. I used to be the kind of mom who wore it on her sleeve all day. I just felt I deserved to let everyone in my family know, I was the victim here. But I also hated feeling that way all day. Wearing it on my sleeve didn’t help anything or anyone. When I decided to change my reactions and mood to bad days, my day ended up not being so bad after all. I mean, yeah…there wasn’t any recovery, the day and all that was planned in it was not going to happen, but that’s ok. I learn how to be a better mom; a better person when these days happen. I get a chance to grow.

So, when these days happen, I now understand they’re short and I don’t want to wish them away. These are the days… and you know what? I’m grateful. I’m grateful I’m a mom. I’m grateful that I have so many amazing children and I’m grateful that God entrusted all these lives to me. I can choose to be in a bad mood or make it a teaching moment, I can love my babies and make the best of it, or hate everyone and wear it on my sleeve. So on these, terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days– I have a choice to make and I choose joy, even in the midst of madness.

Will you, too?