I’m in bed at 9:20. This is not due to rest or luxury. I was
up at 7, made breakfast, changed a diaper, put the toddlers in their seats and
served up eggs, toast and smoothy. I sat down, prayed, read some scripture to
the kids and started eating. The twins were done eating before I got into my
second sip of tea. They looked tired but I didn’t want to put them in bed just
to find in five minutes they had done their morning potty and would have to get
them up. They are nearing two and my son has been poop trained since nine
months so it seemed to me a good idea this morning as it sometimes does to try
to let the twins go on the potty. So I stripped and sat them and they made
efforts but no success. I decide to give them water to support movement. The
cap slips as I am putting it on and water spills everywhere. Then the two year
old announces that he needs to go potty. So in a laps of judgment I strip him
down and tell him to go get on the big potty. He doesn’t want to. He wants to
use the little potty that the girls are using and when a toddler wants to go
poop anywhere that is not the floor or his diaper and relatively looks like a
toilet you oblige him. My son goes on to fill the little potty which is to
small for his capacity. I was watching the girls like a hawk when my son
announces that he is done and bends over to get wiped and my daughter phina copies
her brother and bends herself. When she bends over I see that her bottom is
covered in poop, smashed poop. Immediately
time goes in to warp speed. I wipe the
two year old, wipe the one year old but need a second wipe to complete. Then I’m
searching for the rest of the smashed poop. I can’t find it. I look back at the
potty that my son just filled and Phina is sucking on the edge of it. I scream,
she stops, I find the smashed poop, wipe the smashed poop off the wood floor
and the wall. I go to put a diaper on the poop smasher, she has pooped more and
is putting it in her mouth. I scream. I clean her hand and face and bottom
again. I go throw away the dirty wipes encasing poo. I come back with a diaper,
she has pooped again! This time it’s all contained still on her bottom. I clean
her again, I go to empty the potty filled by the boy. As I walk down the
hallway to the bathroom I see that somehow in the time warp someone has found
the time to run down the hallway and unroll the toilet paper. I then go about
searching for dead after the massacre. One white rug fell victim, fortunately
all the other shots fired were aimed at the hard wood and the walls. Phina runs
past as I am scrubbing the rug and I can smell that she has yes, pooped again. All
this time my son is moaning for me to put his shoes and his coat on and he has
taken them off two times already after I have performed this task this morning.
I put his shoes on and tell him to do
the coat himself. I put the twins in bed with new clothes and new diapers. I collapse
back into bed. The kitchen is a mess. There are eggs on the floor and dishes on
the table, dirty pan on the stove and toys and kids clothes everywhere. The toilet
paper is still unrolled. I am still not confident that all the poop is gone and
my son is driving a toy car on my chest and all over my body as I write. I wish
I could say that chaos like this is a rare moment but really it is a pretty
normal two hours of our life. I think it’s pretty normal for many moms and to
them I salute. Keep marching mamas we serve a worthy cause even if that cause
carries in themselves an unimaginable amount of poop. And so then we come to Jesus… wait… what? Yes,
children who are filled with unimaginable amounts of poop does make me think of
Jesus because I’m one of his kids and yes I even surprise myself with how much
poo I have inside of me. Of course the poo is a word picture for sin. I think
it’s quite fitting. Poo stinks, it makes a mess, no one wants to be around it,
it can ruin lives…. Ok maybe poo can’t ruin lives though it sure feels like it
today. I really am a kid full of poo though. Somedays I think I’m done
pooping and then I make a whole new mess
and I am even surprised by it. I don’t want to stay a mess though so just like
Phina I bend over and ask my heavenly father to clean me up. He does, with
grace and patience. So I guess my kids
poop is making me a tiny bit more like Jesus, teaching me to have patience and grace in
the most stinky situations and that is something I can be thankful for. Thank
you Jesus for messes that remind me of the biggest mess that you so graciously cleaned
and are cleaning. Your sacrifice astounds me.
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