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Moments for Mom
By Elisabeth Corcoran, Author of Calm in My Chaos.
November 2001
Oh, my precious Sara. A girly girl through and through. Last year she went through a bit of a phase of wearing a leotard (fully loaded with
tutu and crown and scepter, I might add) around the house just for kicks. Like, every day, basically. I thought it was cute, until I tried to take
her out in public and she refused to put on anything else.
Well, now, her preference is a dress. Every day. Even if we’re just hanging out at home. So in my attempt to appease my daughter’s boycott
on pants, I have done my best to stock up on all kinds of dresses. Ones she can just kick around in at home, some for school, and some for
church. Now, I also stumbled upon about 3 really wonderful dresses that I am saving for the holidays - these beauties will be perfect for
Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s and all the festivities in between.
Here’s the thing. A ways back, when tackling the clothing switch project (removing all summer clothes from her closet and replacing them
with fall & winter), I filled her closet with all of her new dresses…including those sparkly, furry, dressy dresses set apart just for the holidays.
Well, you can just imagine her first glimpse into that closet - it was like a brand new wardrobe. So many choices (so many decisions!) - she
now had a reason to change her outfit two and three and four times a day! (Oy vay!) But with as much flair as any human can muster, with
that same human nature always looking for something they can’t have - she asked to wear, each day, her Christmas dresses. And each day,
for about three weeks, I told her the same thing, "No, honey - we’re saving those for special occasions." And each day she’d pitch a mini fit
and we’d have it out.
Until one day this week. She was deciding what to wear and proclaimed to me, pointing to those exceptional dresses, "But not these, right,
Mommy? These are for special times, right?" And before I could say yes, she went on to say, in more wisdom than I usually have, "Mommy,
can you just put them away then? I don’t even want to see them anymore."
The temptation was too much for my precious little girl’s heart to bear. She so much wanted to look her most beautiful, but her Mommy
knew that if she wore them now, they wouldn’t be as special later. And she just couldn’t stand being told no anymore. So she asked to have
them removed from her life until they could actually be choices in the running again.
Wow - how I wish I had the wisdom to take a look around my life and see what catches my eye that maybe shouldn’t. What person or thing
or idea that steals a bit of my heart each day that I know I can’t and shouldn’t be even mulling over - and then taking matters into my own
hands and removing the enticement from my life.
Maybe I’ll just have to do that. Because my God, who occasionally says no to me, knows what He’s talking about too. But how much easier
on my heart to not even have something in front of me that makes me drift in the first place.
Copyright © Elisabeth K. Corcoran, 2001. Elisabeth K. Corcoran is the author of "Calm in My Chaos: Encouragement for a Mom's Weary Soul". This column is original and not excerpted from her book. Reprinted with permission.
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