Visualize this day with me for a moment…
The alarm goes off. You roll over groggily and think, “It can’t be time to wake up!” it feels like you fell asleep just minutes ago…You are exhausted because you have worked several 10-12 hour days in the last week and at 3:30 am your son wakes you up crying because he feels sick. You stay up with him until he is finally able to fall back asleep…at 4:40 am.
Your alarm goes off at 5:30 am. You need to be to work by 6:30 am. After hitting the snooze button 3 times you reluctantly stumble out of bed at 5:50 am. It’s only after your eyes adjust and you are able to clearly see the clock in the kitchen that you realize how late you are running. No time for a shower or breakfast now. Kicking it into high gear you quickly fill two of the largest travel mugs you own with coffee, brush your teeth, throw your hair into a ponytail and throw your clothes on and you are out the door.
Traffic is heavier than usual on the way to work. You wonder if you’ll be late. Your anxiety starts to build. Thankfully you aren’t late so you start working. Although you love your job, you are a bit frazzled and worried about your son. About halfway through your workday you remember that you also need to take your car in to get checked today. Your tire pressure light has been on for three days and today is the only day you have time to take it in. Your cell phone ringing interrupts your thoughts. It’s your son. His throat and his ear really hurt. You need to try to get him into the doctor. While you work, you try to figure out when you can get your son to the doctor. You fight to control your rising stress level and the fatigue clawing at you as you continue working.
Finally you are done at work. You go pick up your kids and decide to take your car in while you are waiting to hear back from the doctor. As you explain that your son is sick and ask them to look at your car as fast as possible you feel like the world’s worst mom. Finally, as you wait for your car to be done, with your son laying on your lap lethargically while you wait to hear back from the doctor. No available appointments today. So, you go to the walk in clinic…and wait some more. Finally your son gets seen. He has a severe strep throat. This news makes you want to start crying uncontrollably right in the doctor’s office.
You need to get some things from the store for your son and then finally you can go home and get some rest. You are pulling up to your house when you realize that you have NOTHING to feed your family for dinner and it’s almost 5:30 pm…
That was MY day a couple weeks ago. It felt like a colossal disaster of a day. There was NOTHING extraordinary about it. At least I didn’t think so at the time. However, looking back, I see the extraordinary moments in that day. Clients who understood that I had to talk to my son for 2 minutes in the middle of our session because he was sick. Boys who were patient and loving to each other as they spent the majority of their day with me simply waiting. Medication for my son that started working immediately so he started feeling better the very next day. Being able to care for my son, hold him and tell him how much I loved him when he felt terrible made me feel so close to him. That was EXTRAORDINARY.
The purpose of my blog is to challenge myself and my readers to chose to live each day ON PURPOSE. With JOY. If the ordinary moments of your life have become rote, If your daily routine feels meaningless or mundane, change it! Maybe you don’t have the freedom or time to change very much in your daily routine, but the exciting news is that you can change your OUTLOOK on your daily routine as much as you want to. It is completely up to you!
I recently went to a women’s conference at my church that really changed and challenged me. The speaker talked about how she started doing something she had always wanted to do which was write and how God used her writing to change and inspire her to do something amazing for God. She challenged us to find our new “normal’ and to respond to the opportunities God gives us and to take ACTION in doing something for God.
We are all busy. We all have gone through pain and suffering in our lives. We wonder if we have anything left to give away.
I feel overworked, overtired and pulled in so many different directions much of the time, but I am committed to giving what I have to God so he can turn it into whatever he wants it to be so it can glorify HIM. I have always dreamed of writing. I believe that writing is part of God’s purpose for my life. I want to volunteer. I want to help others. I know my past pain can be used for God’s glory.
I am an everyday, average working mom who loves Jesus, her kids and her husband. I lose it with my family more often than I wish I did. I am far from perfect but I am done accepting that my everyday ordinary days have to be…well…ordinary! Your extraordinary ordinary will look different from mine, but it will be just as extraordinary! I can’t wait to share more about who I am with you. To laugh and cry with you. To celebrate great days together and put bad days behind us. I hope you join me on the journey as we experience our extraordinary ordinary days together!
