Face to Face

Good morning to the greatest moms in the world! If you are like me, and I know you are, your spring had sprung like a tightly wound jack-in-the-box and a crazy little clown seems to be mocking your busyness. Today, I'm going to describe my day last Thursday because I know many of you out there will totally relate to my every step.

My day started early as I always take the willing middle schoolers in our neighborhood to school early for the FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) meeting. This actually means that my day starts rather quietly as you can imagine the ride with four sleepy middle schoolers. My van is pretty much an extension of their beds for the thirty minute ride to school, so I calmly listen to music and wait for anything audible to come from one of them. I'm a firm believer in the power of car-talk among teens. It can be very enlightening, but it's a little like fishing—wait, wait, be patient, wait and boom—you land one. Usually, early morning is more waiting than landing, but one can always hope.

After I dropped the kids off, I headed to Wal-Mart, where early in the morning or late at night makes for the best shopping experience. No lines, no screaming children, and a better chance of getting a buggy that doesn't veer to the right. Next on my schedule was tennis. My oldest daughter and I play in a league on Thursday mornings which gives us an opportunity to talk uninterrupted by children. True, the game of tennis is a little distracting to our conversation, but nothing compared to kids saying "mama" a thousand times, so we manage to catch-up between points.

As soon as the last point was played, I headed off to Sam's for the bigger items I needed for three upcoming Easter parties. Now, I have to tell you, I don't think I'm in good enough shape to shop at Sam's anymore. I'm just saying, there isn't an item in that store that weighs less than thirty pounds. J By the time I loaded my buggy, then loaded my car for the ride home, then unloaded my car at the house, I was DONE! I'm so not kidding! I was thinking I saw some older folks (older than me) in Sam's that day and I have no idea what they could have bought. Maybe bread---that was the lightest thing I bought. Seriously! Bread and, maybe, a plant. But, even those were massive.

Usually, the next few hours are spent working, but that day my work time was spent at Sam's so by the time I got home and unloaded, I only had an hour for work. I got a few things done on my computer before I hit the road to watch my two oldest grandkids at their track meet in another town thirty minutes away. I love track which means getting assigned this job by my daughter was right up my alley. The bad news for that day was it was freezing cold and windy. I basically shivered through one grandchild throwing the javelin and the other one pole vaulting. I was ready for a warm car by the last pole vault and we quickly loaded up, stopped for fast food, and were on our way back to town for softball practice. We wheeled in the ballpark right at 5:45. I dropped Sadie, my granddaughter, off for her practice, took grandson, John Luke, home and went to my next assignment—T-ball practice with Aevin, the five year old. In case you're wondering where the parents were in all of this, they were all at other kid things. Trust me, no one's goofing off! (Hang with me. I have a point to all of this.)

Remember how cold it was at the track meet, T-ball being later in the day, was worse. But, I faithfully stood until dark right beside my little first baseman giving him the tips of the trade (after all I did play first base on the church team for five years) and listening to young coaches say things like, "All the outfielders line up over here" and "Justin, you have to cover that base." thinking don't these guys know a five year old has no idea what an "outfielder" is or what "cover your base" means?? Oh well, what do I know?

While at T-ball practice, my son-in-law called to see if he could borrow my camera for his last basketball game at eight o'clock that night. Of course I said yes. In fact, I said that I would come to the game too. After all, I hadn't done enough that day. I called my daughter to pick me up, dropped Aevin off with his dad, and soon I was off to basketball. Now, here's the important part of the story.

I jumped in the front seat and began talking to all the kids while looking out the front window. A few minutes into the "hi" and "how was your day" greetings, my seven year old granddaughter, Bella, leaned up to the front seat from her backseat and tapped me on the arm and said, "Two mama, I haven't seen your face all day." I turned around to be greeted by the most precious smile and twinkling brown eyes ever. She was dressed appropriately in her cheerleader costume ready to cheer her daddy on to victory. What a precious site!

Later that night, as I was winding down from my busy day, I felt another nudge. No, it wasn't a grandchild. Surprisingly none of them were spending the night. It was a heavenly nudge. It was God saying, "I haven't seen your face today." And when I looked up, in my mind, I saw the most precious face dressed in a cheerleader suit, smiling down at me and waiting to cheer me on. I don't know what God looks like, but that day, He looked like a seven year old in a cheerleader costume.

Three times in Psalms 42 and 43, the Psalmist uses these words, "Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul? Why are you crying the blues? Fix my eyes on God— soon I'll be praising again. He puts a smile on my face. He's my God." How often in your busy day do you think to look at God—to fix your eyes on Him? I confess that while I know God is constantly watching over me, many times, I fail to let Him see ME. Today, I want to thank Bella for reminding me to slow down and let God see my face. As much as I value seeing His face, He values seeing mine.

Today and this week and forever, let God see your face. Look up to the Heaven's and have face to face time with your Father. You will be blessed beyond all you could ask or imagine if you do.

Hugs for a great week, Chrys