Conquer Day

Your difficult is different from mine. Of course, there are things we’d probably all agree on–extreme stuff–but the day-to-day challenges we face are usually uniquely challenging for us.

This is especially true with a certain special son of mine. If I were to make a quick list of someone our recent, or common, difficult things it would look something like this:

1. State testing
2. Leaving the house (for any reason)
3. Leaving the house early in the morning  (thus feeling rushed)
4. Playdates with large groups of children he doesn’t know
5. Costco

Well, wouldn’t you know it, four of these items all happened to fall on one day. We’d already gotten through #1 and Dutch did great, although we hadn’t heard yet what his test results were. But this particular day, were not only leaving the house, we were leaving fairly early in the morning, to be gone the entire day (ai yai yai!), going to not 1, not 2, but 3 different people’s houses, playing with some children he didn’t know, then topping off the day with a trip to Costco.

Usually, when I begin a post like this you know it’s going to be a “Why am I so stupid?!” sort of thing. But, for once, that is not the story.

We had been focusing, the previous 5-6 days, on some areas that needed work. We started by memorizing, together, “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.”  We returned to this, again and again, when we met new challenges or felt overwhelmed. And it’s true. We can! It always surprises me how things that seem so discouraging, behavior-wise, can often be turned around so quickly when we really put in the time and effort (effort!) to pray over and work hard, together, by Christ’s strength, on that area. Anyway, we did that, and so instead of cringing or expecting this day to be a nightmare, we firmly explained the plan, the expectations of the day, the benefits (sprinklers!) and built-in bonuses for good attitudes (ice cream at Costco!).

To my everlasting amazement, the day was great. Not just good. Great. He hit it off with new kids. Didn’t have a single melt-down. Never even complained. In fact, (get this!) after Costco, when we’d already been out and about for 8 hours, when I needed to make one last stop for a few extra groceries, he said, “Sure!” with a smile.

Say what?! Who is this kid?!

Later that night, just before bed, I finally got around to opening the mail, and we received his state testing results. It will take all my efforts to not just shamelessly brag on my boy right now, but suffice it to say, he was very happy. In fact, in math, which is the area we always say he “struggles with” — he didn’t miss a single problem! HUH?! So yeah, I guess I need to stop saying he struggles with math. 🙂

ANYWAY, I wish you could have see the BEAMING SMILE on my boy’s face as he looked over the test results, and we reflected on the day’s activities. I encouraged him, “You conquered! We conquered together! All the things we thought were so hard, we conquered!” He thought for a second, asked me the day’s date, then said with a smile.

“August 2nd is CONQUER DAY! Every year on August 2nd we need to go to Costco and do hard things and celebrate that fact that we can CONQUER. It’s CONQUER DAY!”

YES! We all agreed. Then Dutch called us to put our hands in altogether, like they do at the end of a sports’ game.

“Ok. ‘Conquer Day’ on 3. Ready? One, two, three…”

“CONQUER DAY!”

I’ve said before, I’m all about celebrating little victories. I know some kids are already professional actors, elite athletes, or performing musicians. This mama’s heart is overflowing full because we conquered our difficult, and every day can be a chance to overcome my selfishness, my fear, my doubt, my unbelief.

Everyday can be CONQUER DAY through Christ who gives me strength. 

{Thanks for reading.}