Mothers' day irony

You kind of wish that mother's day would be the one day a year everything is perfect. One day you would feel that life is how they make it look like in magazines: clean house, good (and nice looking) food, well behaving children dressed and combed beautifully, everyone showing appreciation for you. Only nice words spoken the whole day. You know, just that one perfect day once a year. You know the rest wont be perfect, but that one would give you hope that it might be attainable. 

So when the kids come and wake you up with x number of cards and hand made craft items they barely remember themselves what they are and the added 30 + bonus drawings, you smile and thank and feel that pleasure even though you wonder where to display them all because they need to be displayed so kids wont sulk and all need to be displayed so they wont start fighting.

You get to the breakfast table and look at the nice food on your plate. You know you will be the center of the day because kids are loudly fighting about who gets to sit next to mother and those who wont get to do it, cry or shout unfair or sulk. But you smile and try to remind them that you really would appreciate if there was a little bit less shouting and crying.

It is lovely to be the center of the attention. The little one wants to share everything on his or her plate and not just with you but with your clothes also. The dad nicely takes care of everything and lets you run away to the shower all by yourself so you wont hear all the screaming about how mother does things differently. Of course while he's in the shower you'll get them all ready because you're almost late, but who cares. After all, it is a mother's day and she can decide to do things if she wants to. 

By the time the dinner is ready after church, you notice spots of food from snacks or dirt from somewhere on trousers, white shirts and dresses and the living room floor is covered with toys and colouring books, not to mention the colouring pencils. You hear the questions "what could I do?" and "where's my...?" and of course the statements of "I don't like this food" and "he kicked me under the table" at the dinner table. And during the day there are the runny noses, the fallings and the poopings and dad simply can't do it all by himself. 

So by the end of the day you realize you are yet to experience the perfect day with the perfect family. But if you're lucky, you also realize, that it actually is perfect as it is. Next time you might just spend the day enjoying it. 

Prayer

.A little  while ago, on a religious radio channel - radiodei-,  I heard an advertisement. It advertised both people who can pray for you when  ask them to and also a course where you can become such  a "professional" who will be praying for others. 

I believe in prayer. I believe there is God who hears all prayers, no matter how uttered, and who answers those prayers as He sees best. I also believe praying as an act itself is a form of organizing one's thoughts and  a helpful way of getting insight to important things, whether you really believe in God or not. 

I believe we can gain a lot by praying for others. It helps us focus on other people and be less selfish. Of course I also believe our prayers are heard and God will bless those we pray for. But the advertisement made me think do we sometimes think that someone else's prayers would be more effective than ours? I could ask friends to pray for me, because it's a way of support. It could make us closer and more unified.  But I don't believe that in numbers there is power, meaning that the more people pray for something the better we can persuade God to give us what we want.  But I do think knowing that others are praying for me, working together with me to achieve something, will give me strength to carry on.

Why would I ask a person I don't know to pray for me, instead of praying myself? If I lack faith that God will answer my prayer, would I think that if someone with more faith prayed for me, his faith would allow me to have the blessing I want? I don't think so. I think God is more willing to answer my sincere yet doubtful or faithless prayer than that of someone not related to the matter at all.

Prayer works. Not always the way we want or the way we think it might. But it works. Some may give credit to other things for those answers to prayers, but even then it is worth praying. Those of us who believe in God know that all good comes from God. Regardless of the recipient of the good believing or not believing. 

If there is something you'd like to be better in your life, it's worth trying to pray.