A Perfect Day

Grandma, on a winter’s day, milked the cows and fed them hay, hitched the mule, drove kids to school…did a washing, mopped the floors, washed the windows and did some chores…Cooked a dish of home-dried fruit, pressed her husband’s Sunday suit…swept the parlor, made the bed, baked a dozen loaves of bread…split some firewood and lugged it in, enough to fill the kitchen bin…Cleaned the lamps and put in oil, stewed some apples before they spoiled…churned the butter, baked a cake, then exclaimed, “For goodness sake!” when the calves ran from the pen, and chased them all back in again…Gathered eggs and locked the stable, back to the house and set the table…cooked a supper that was delicious, then washed and dried all dirty dishes…fed the cat and sprinkled clothes, mended a basketful of hose…then opened the organ and began to play: “When You Come to the End of a Perfect Day…”
Reminisce, premiere issue, 1991,

Does the previous paragraph sound like a day in your life? Okay, maybe we didn’t have to split firewood, hitch a mule and put oil in the lamps, but don’t you find that you move from one task to another from morning ’til night? But do we reflect the attitude that is represented in that poem? It’s an attitude of joy; how else could she sing, “When you come to the end of a perfect day” after all that back-breaking work?

Do we look at all we do as mothers as contributing to a perfect day, or do all those tasks rob us of what we would consider perfection? Is perfection being taken care of or taking care? Is it being served or serving? Is it having creativity surround us, or being creative? Each of us need to answer those questions honestly, but the reality is, whatever our attitude is, our children will pick up on it. They know whether or not we love being their mommy. They know if we’re happy in what we do. Remember the quote, “If Momma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy”? It’s really true, isn’t it? We women set the tone for our home, so if we have a bad attitude home is not a fun place to be! We all have days in which we’d like to turn in our mommy badge, but those days shouldn’t be the norm. Perhaps we need to ask the Lord to help us to be like the mother mentioned in Psalm 113:9 “He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children.”

Have a good attitude about all that you find yourself doing today…make it a perfect day!