Thoughts from a Potty Break

"After this is over, I will..." I've said it far too often. Dianna shares on this often repeated mother phrase.

Thoughts from a Potty Break

By Dianna Overholt

“Aren’t you about done?”

Exasperation. Two brown mommy-shoes, planted firmly on the floor inside the bathroom stall.

“No, Mommy, I have to go poopie now.” Two pink canvas toes dangled, witness of The Need in the midst of grocery shopping.

Brown shoes shifted. Then, not unkindly, just harried: “Well, hurry up and go so that we can get on with life!”

I grinned. She could’ve been quoting me. Why is it that focused activities and appointments coincide with a toddler’s need to “go”?

Hurry up and go so that we can get on with life. Potty Time interrupts. One hundred and fifty-eight other things interrupt our plans for good time management. I don’t know about you, but it’s as if I have an after-this-is-over-I’ll-live mentality. After the headaches, I’ll start being pleasant. After the temper tantrums, I’ll enjoy child training. After there’s more money, I’ll quit worrying about bills.

But time is never on pause. Tantrums, headaches, bills, and fifteen-minute bathroom breaks are not interruptions in life- they are life! They are life itself, not things that pause life until they pass.

“God,” I pray, “Maker of my days, if I want to do anything in this new year, it is to truly live in the moments. To see the interruptions and un-pleasantries You allow as part of Your schedule for me. And even more, to smile in them because You want to use them to make me a better person, don’t You? Cause me to see time not as something to control, but to redeem.”

It’s good to practice in the small things. So, as I plant my own brown mommy-shoes beside our bathroom, I choose to live in the moment. No scolding my five-year-old, or frowning impatiently at the clock that tells me the post office closes soon. I’ll thank God for my son’s funny little ways. I’ll pray for his tender heart. 

And most likely I’ll check to see if he remembered to put on underwear!

A personal note…

I have one tool I especially rely on for time redemption: my homemaker’s organizer of days and duties called “Guiding the House.” It’s more than a daily planner with six tabbed sections (Days, Home Foods, Cleaning, Clothing, Inspiration, Odds & Ends), lots of encouragement, and over 30 charts to track the details of a homemaking. The 8” x 10” 2014 organizers are $16.95 each, plus $4 shipping. Feel free to email me @ ozarkfamilybooks@gmail.com or call 417-719-8013. Also available on Amazon.