everyone else, like you used to when you
were working, and pray. Get your mind right. Ask God to show you what to do in
the next 24 hours, and see what happens. Got it?”
“Mmm hmmm.” When did she become the big sister?
“I gotta go. Silent reading
time is almost over,” she said.
“What’s that?”
“It’s when the kids have to
do something silent after playtime. It helps them get calm before homework,”
she spelled out.
“You can play before
homework?”
“You can do whatever works
for your household,” she said. “Get some kind of schedule going—you know,
so much time for this, so much time for that after school. And then for the
house, decide what you’re gonna do on certain days. Rotate mopping, dusting, a
little bit every day. And plan a week-long menu. Girl, you’ll have the Browns
runnin’ like a well-oiled machine. And then if you go back to work, it’ll be
easier to plug your assistants back into the equation.”
The school bell rang and the
first children, whose teachers must have had their noses pressed against the
glass, zipped out of the doors. The children’s backpacks bounced heartily as
they found their rides waiting in the circular drive-up.
Once Seth came bounding out
of the building, the rest of the evening flashed before my eyes.
Stelson texted me once to say
he’d be even later than he thought, but I didn’t care. I got Zoe and Seth in
bed as soon as possible, and I was right behind them. When I worked, there was
only a two-hour span between the time I scooped them up from daycare until I
turned out the lights. Now, with five hours…
Lord, You changed my mind
and caused me to make this decision. Now I need you to change my heart to
match.
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.
My alarm clock showed six
o’clock. Not too much later than the time I used to rise when I actually had a
job.
But this is a job , I reminded myself. Actually, the
thought was so contrary to my feelings, the words probably hadn’t come from me.
They were from my heavenly Father, the very reason I’d chosen to set the buzzer
in the first place.
The aroma of Stelson’s coffee
was still fresh in the kitchen, though I’d heard him leave about ten minutes
earlier. My husband was serious about getting in his exercise at least three
times a week. After his gym workout, he’d shower and go straight to the office
if his schedule allowed for khakis and a rugby shirt.
Hopefully, in weeks to come,
we’d be able to see each other before he left for work.
But that particular morning,
I was glad for the silence. Glad to return to a routine that had completely
escaped me since Seth came into the picture four years earlier. Were it not for
Stelson praying for our family and calling me into prayer with him sometimes, I
would have been a guest in the upper room.
Quietly, I moved through the
kitchen and made myself a quick cup of tea. That Zoe had super-sensitive ears,
and I had come to believe that she could decipher my footsteps from her
father’s because she never woke up when he was walking through the house. Only
me.
And then came the biggest
wake-up call of all: I had no idea where my personal Bible case was. I’d
carried my smaller, travel Bible to church Sunday, but the sacred one I’d owned
since the previous century, with all the highlighting, my personal notes, along
with my journal, was nowhere in plain sight.
That’s just sad.
After searching through my
nightstand, under my bed, and in Stelson’s office, I decided that it must have
been in my car’s trunk. Going out to the garage was not gonna happen if I
wanted the morning’s peace to remain intact for another hour, so I grabbed Stelson’s
Bible from his desk along with a blank yellow notepad from one of his drawers.
I tiptoed to the guest
bedroom, slowly closing and releasing the door behind me. I felt like
screaming, “I made it!” but instead, tears overtook me as I fell to my knees at
the foot of the full-sized bed.
This was the
were working, and pray. Get your mind right. Ask God to show you what to do in
the next 24 hours, and see what happens. Got it?”
“Mmm hmmm.” When did she become the big sister?
“I gotta go. Silent reading
time is almost over,” she said.
“What’s that?”
“It’s when the kids have to
do something silent after playtime. It helps them get calm before homework,”
she spelled out.
“You can play before
homework?”
“You can do whatever works
for your household,” she said. “Get some kind of schedule going—you know,
so much time for this, so much time for that after school. And then for the
house, decide what you’re gonna do on certain days. Rotate mopping, dusting, a
little bit every day. And plan a week-long menu. Girl, you’ll have the Browns
runnin’ like a well-oiled machine. And then if you go back to work, it’ll be
easier to plug your assistants back into the equation.”
The school bell rang and the
first children, whose teachers must have had their noses pressed against the
glass, zipped out of the doors. The children’s backpacks bounced heartily as
they found their rides waiting in the circular drive-up.
Once Seth came bounding out
of the building, the rest of the evening flashed before my eyes.
Stelson texted me once to say
he’d be even later than he thought, but I didn’t care. I got Zoe and Seth in
bed as soon as possible, and I was right behind them. When I worked, there was
only a two-hour span between the time I scooped them up from daycare until I
turned out the lights. Now, with five hours…
Lord, You changed my mind
and caused me to make this decision. Now I need you to change my heart to
match.
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.
My alarm clock showed six
o’clock. Not too much later than the time I used to rise when I actually had a
job.
But this is a job , I reminded myself. Actually, the
thought was so contrary to my feelings, the words probably hadn’t come from me.
They were from my heavenly Father, the very reason I’d chosen to set the buzzer
in the first place.
The aroma of Stelson’s coffee
was still fresh in the kitchen, though I’d heard him leave about ten minutes
earlier. My husband was serious about getting in his exercise at least three
times a week. After his gym workout, he’d shower and go straight to the office
if his schedule allowed for khakis and a rugby shirt.
Hopefully, in weeks to come,
we’d be able to see each other before he left for work.
But that particular morning,
I was glad for the silence. Glad to return to a routine that had completely
escaped me since Seth came into the picture four years earlier. Were it not for
Stelson praying for our family and calling me into prayer with him sometimes, I
would have been a guest in the upper room.
Quietly, I moved through the
kitchen and made myself a quick cup of tea. That Zoe had super-sensitive ears,
and I had come to believe that she could decipher my footsteps from her
father’s because she never woke up when he was walking through the house. Only
me.
And then came the biggest
wake-up call of all: I had no idea where my personal Bible case was. I’d
carried my smaller, travel Bible to church Sunday, but the sacred one I’d owned
since the previous century, with all the highlighting, my personal notes, along
with my journal, was nowhere in plain sight.
That’s just sad.
After searching through my
nightstand, under my bed, and in Stelson’s office, I decided that it must have
been in my car’s trunk. Going out to the garage was not gonna happen if I
wanted the morning’s peace to remain intact for another hour, so I grabbed Stelson’s
Bible from his desk along with a blank yellow notepad from one of his drawers.
I tiptoed to the guest
bedroom, slowly closing and releasing the door behind me. I felt like
screaming, “I made it!” but instead, tears overtook me as I fell to my knees at
the foot of the full-sized bed.
This was the
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