Sanctification is Sometimes Sweet

We went "out" today, me an' the bitty Bugs.
As you know, that can be either good OR... challenging. Today it was good. Very good!

I have written on this subject before, but I feel it needs revisiting and a "good" day out is a good time to revisit it. Don't you agree?

Picture this:
Momma.
A cart with two little girls and baby in basket.
Two boys and a big girl following behind.












Rather a bit of a parade as we all troop into Costco, and only a portion of the crew some of you take with you on grocery excursions!

This is the time when you get "THE looks", "THE comments", occasionally "THE questions" and almost always the raised eyebrows.
On a "good" day we mommas-of-many like to don our most winsome smiles and uncan our favorite "replies" to dish out.
On a "not-so-good" outing we prefer to keep our heads down and move through the store as fast as five hands on the shopping cart and distracted little feet will allow.

I want to tell you the secret to my successful days. It's a fact that I don't implement my secret formula every time I go out, but when I DO remember, it works like a charm!

Momma Bug's
Successful Shopping Secret
for
Sanctified Supermoms

so they Survive Still Standing:

You must decide to enjoy your children before you set foot out of the house.
That's step one.
Step two is to TELL them you are going to enjoy them,

and TELL them how much you are enjoying them
(even when it's stretching the truth just a teeny bit),
and TELL them how wonderful they are; how great they are behaving; and how they are the best children in the whole world - and definitely the best children in the store!!

It's a tried and true formula folks.
If you TELL your children these things and purpose
and behave as though you mean it (because you DO)...
Your children will stand taller, walk straighter, pull on the cart less, help more,
and BE those wonderful children you told them they ARE!

Most the time I am guilty of attempting to shop with well behaved children under my own measly powers of persuasion. Sometimes it's a bearable excursion, but usually I forget to smile and have to iron creases out of my brow afterward. Not a pretty picture, but true.

Today though... smiles and giggles of the genuine sort. Even in the fray of mustard-covered faces and sticky hands. I enjoyed them.
They enjoyed me.

I guess it showed because even though I was completely preoccupied with my own little circus to notice anyone else, there were those who watched us.

One older gentleman came up to me and somehow managed to capture my distracted attention:

"Thanks..." he said with a grin
"Thanks for just being you."

And while that man "put the cherry on top", he also caused me to remember that my Lord is watching too.
And in that moment I knew my Heavenly Father was smiling with us :-)