'A Sock in the Dishcloth Drawer' or 'Things That Cause Mom to Meltdown"

I am admittedly a little of a perfectionist. Ok. Maybe a lot of a perfectionist- but let it be known that I fight it and don't like it about myself. Actually I hate those tendencies and have dreams of being a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of girl who just lets it all go...and I am closer to that than I have ever been in my life, but I am just not there yet, and probably will never be.

So some things bother me. And when they bother me, these things, they seem to be really, really important. They seem to be seriously important and crucially vital things in that particular moment, even if later on I look back and have another kind of moment in which I say, "Shay, what in the world were you so upset about?!"

And one of these things that bothers me is the dishcloth drawer, you know where you put all the cloths you use to either wipe down counters or dry dishes. Mine is right between the sink and oven, and it is fairly small because who wants to use up precious kitchen real estate for dish rags?

I am at that stage of life where the state of my dishcloths does not matter to me one single bit. They are stained, thin, don't match my kitchen, and some of them should probably be thrown away, to be honest. When I was a newlywed, now, then, it did matter. My kitchen was decorated in ivy (yes it was the middle of the nineties) and dog gone, every dish towel I had was going to hunter green or burgundy or it was going to have something to do with ivy and if it didn't then banish it! But now, I don't care. I really really don't. ( See I told you I was getting better!)

But. Something does bother me about that drawer, and here is my the source of my big frustration: I keep finding socks in it.

Socks. In the dishcloth drawer. WHAT IN THE WORLD?! My precious children help to put up clean clothes and also have kitchen chore duties, so I can only figure that somehow, someway, in some space in one of their brains, a sock belongs in the same place that dishcloths go. And not a pair of socks, oh no, just one sock.

Now, I have opened that drawer, seen a sock and said, huh? more times than I can count now. And finally, one day, I opened the drawer, saw a pink and white striped sock and had had enough, and I mean enough!

What I wish I could tell you I did was to listen to that still small voice and just breathe through it and laugh at how silly it was and how precious a reminder it was that I still have house full of kids and one day when they are all gone and living somewhere else I would love to find a sock in the wrong place. Now, that sounds like a normal course of action...but then, in that moment, however, that isn't what I did.

What I did do was yell for my children to come to me. I lined them up in the kitchen. I opened the dishcloth drawer and showed them the offensive sock. Shockingly, they did not wail in repentance or admit which of them did such a wicked thing. So, of course, I had to explain to them WHY it is so offensive to place said sock in said drawer and give them a much too long lecture to ensure that no sock ever ever ever ever ever ends up in that drawer again. And I am sure my tone of voice was kind, nurturing and completely godly. Ha ha ha.

So after this informative lecture, a few days later I opened the drawer to take out a cloth to wipe the counter and you will never in a million years imagine what I found in it. Now sit down because I don't know if you can handle the shock: it was... a sock.

I just stood there with that stupid sock in my hand (this time it was black), and I could feel that aggravation start in my toes and go up to the core of my body. And then, I started to laugh. I mean, I just really, really laughed, right up through my stomach to my heart and all through my body. I put my head on my hands on that dirty counter and laughed and laughed at the ridiculousness of my anger and frustration that I was holding in my hand. I laughed so hard my kids came into the kitchen and said, "Mom, what in the world is wrong with you?! What is so funny?!"

All I could do was hold up the sock. And laugh some more, and pull them to me and kiss their heads and say, "Mama just lost it for a minute."

How ridiculous, how silly, that I let a sock in the wrong place tear up my peace and cause me to be less than kind to my children, to let that sock be anything more than a blip on the screen of my day. It's embarrassing to admit.

Like I said before, God is still working on me, and I am so, so glad. For one reason, I want to have more moments where small things bring me joy and stir my heart to thanksgiving than moments that stir up aggravation and frustration because things are not exactly like I want or expect them to be.

Aren't we blessed by His patient love, His kind and gentle ways that tolerate our sometimes ridiculous and petty, even strange and peculiar weaknesses? I certainly am, and my prayer is that He will keep on using even socks to open my eyes and keep me from being satisfied with being anything less that He wants me to be...namely, a mom who doesn't freak out about socks and dishcloths being drawer buddies.

Maybe I am not alone here...anyone out there have anything that may seem ridiculous but drives you nuts? Feel free to share- and I will pray for you because I know exactly how you feel!

Blessings,
Shay








3 comments:

Kristi said...

I love this!! I can relate on so many levels, too. I freaked out when I kept finding my husband's pants in my closet. I mean, seriously, surely they could see those pants were not mine! (and then I hung Aaron's pants in David's closet thinking they were David's even though Aaron is at least four inches taller and we were all even and we laughed, too)

SheilaG @ Plum Doodles said...

Great story, Shay. I sure get caught up in the unimportant junk- methinks it is the enemy's tactic to cause us to miss the whispers of the Spirit. By the way, thanks for letting me know where the black hole in my laundry dumps all my socks. ;)

Unknown said...

I am a bit of a control freak, sadly, and that sock would drive me crazy too! Lol My poor children have had to move houses so many times in their short existence they never seem to know where anything goes. We have lived in this house for almost three years now. I always set up my kitchen and dishes a certain way. When they put away dishes I can never find anything where it is supposed to be. I used to call them in for the"we've lived here two years and ya'll still don't know where this stuff goes?" speech which graduated to me just rearranging all the stuff to now just trying to look past it lol. The Lord is still working on us all thank goodness 😊

Post a Comment


up