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Monday, March 28, 2011

A Spoonful of Sugar

All too often I forget these words of wisdom from Mary Poppins! This morning my girls and I had a busy morning we had to go to two different Dr's offices and I was putting on a brave face taking care of them when I myself was feeling quite ill.  At one point in the van the toddler was crying for all sorts of reasons or for no real reason at all.  She is NEVER happy in the car! She will throw her blanket on the floor and then sob because she doesn't have her blanket.  Yeah, she is one of those.  And as it turns out she wasn't even the one with a terrible ear infection, she is just two! Anyways, then I thought of what always makes me feel better and I can use this...



...to follow this lady's fine advice!



After all the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree, my youngest is always asking for a "Luh-bye" at bedtime when she is apprehensive about going to sleep.  So I pulled up one of her favorite songs on the stereo and she instantly stopped crying.  (Have I mentioned how much I love my new van that stores like 60,000 songs, so nice to have whatever song you want available at the drop of a hat?) I glanced back at her a few seconds into the song she was gazing out the window, a slight smile on her face, fresh teardrops still on her cheeks and mumbling the words of the song.  The second song I picked was from Miss Mary Poppins herself (I hope you heard Dick VanDyke's voice in your head just now, I did!) Just a Spoon Full of Sugar.  I was thinking about how something sweet helps you get through the tough stuff.  Often over-eaters turn to actual sugar.  I am not going to lie, this has helped me through some bad days...



But what has really helped me through A LOT is music.  Just like the wistful look on my little one's face I always am calmed down instantly by the emotion and power of a song expressing what my heart feels but someone else possessed the talent to set to music.  Point of fact if I am going through something specific I will pour through my music collection until I find that one perfect song that expresses exactly how I feel and then latch on to it for a season or until the trial lasts or until another song comes along.  Other times I am struggling and I will hear a song on the radio and believe wholly that God is speaking to me through that song.  It has always been the way I have related to the world.  And now I will hear one of those poignant songs from the past and say "Oh that was my _______ song" or "That song really helped me with ________" and it has become a way of keeping a chronicle of my faith journey.  This may sound extremely corny to some of you.  But I truly think we all need a spoonful of sugar and I would much rather use music than actual sugar. 

As of late I am trying to do a little self-talk reprogramming.  I have a tendency to be very negative to myself and carry those negative thoughts along in mind as truth.  Recently I made a decision that I needed to start speaking truth into my life, viewing myself the way God sees me and loving myself for who he created me to be.  I actually was thinking about my whole "need for the perfect song" thing and I thought well if I just had a song where God would tell me what he thought of me then I could listen to it whenever the negative voices crowded up my head and that would be the end of that.  I kid you not I heard this song on the radio like 5 min later!

Now when I hear one of my songs I know it's just God giving me some sugar! That's a beautiful thing!   Now I have a deep connection to music but if that's not your "thing", find a place where you can get some sugar too.  Something to help with the tough stuff.   A good friendship that helps, cultivate that friendship it's precious.  A favorite hobby, carve out time for it.  A place to be alone and pray, get there as often as possible.  Get regular doses of sugar cause we know it helps the medicine go down.  My girls and I got home from our whirlwind tour of Dr's this morning, I got back into my jammies (don't judge me) and we watched Mary Poppins, I had to see it at that point.  Good old wise nanny, wiped the tears from my daughters eyes and replaced it with a smile and reminded me of a valuable lesson in the meantime.  I hope you find your spoonful of sugar too. 

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