While dropping the “boys” (a.k.a. teenagers!) off for summer camp, our usually family photo ops didn’t turn out quite the way I would have liked. Everyone was hot and sweaty. One of the boys, who shall remain nameless (hint: it’s not the one pictured), was not very happy with Mama. Of course, I really wanted to get some good family pics, but I could tell it just wasn’t gonna happen. So rather than trying to force it and make everyone pose with fake smiles and side rib jabs behind the camera, I just took a few “candid” shots. Like this one, I took on the covered wagon, on the way to their cabins.
Lovely, right?
While we were making beds and getting them settled in, they were cranky and really didn’t want my help. At first, I persisted and just kept trying to hang and organize all the things the way I knew they would appreciate later on during the week. But once the nameless one insisted that I leave and stop working on his set-up, I had the best/worst moment. I said, “Okay. I will stop and leave it all just like this.”
And I did.
As I was walking out the cabin door, that motherly phrase popped into my head. “You get what you get and you don’t throw a fit!” Of course, that’s the phrase we’ve repeated over all the years trying to teach the kids to take what life hands them without grumbling or complaining. Except at that moment, the phrase was coming back for ME. I get what I get. No need to throw a fit. It would only have made things worse. It took ALL my might to stay calm when all I wanted to do was throw a FIT! I said “Goodbye” to my boy without a hug or a kiss and with a slightly broken heart. It still aches just thinking about it now.
That ache has been a great teacher for me this week.
I’ve already encountered many situations that make me instinctively want to throw a fit. And if I’m honest, maybe I have thrown a couple of small fits, but I’m noticing them quickly. I’m saying to myself, “You get what you get girl. Don’t throw a fit.” I’m working to choose joy. I’m intentionally breathing a deep breath of peace.
I’ve heard it said that anger and frustration only bread more anger and frustration.
I believe that’s so true. If you can choose to meet anger and frustration with joy, it throws a wrench in that cycle. If you can rise to meet your disappointments with a long deep breath of peace, it diffuses the power that disappointment has over you. It will elevate your view of the situation beyond that moment, into the next.
Try it with me this week.
When things aren’t going the way you planned, hoped, or expected, whisper this to yourself.
You get what you get and you don’t throw a fit.
I can’t wait to hear how it helps.
to more love,
Crystal
