I remember this computer game my dad and brothers used to play. It was golf on our old Windows 3.1 – a big step up from our Dos system! Anyway, it wasn’t the easiest to play, but it had this wonderful feature – the mulligan! My bad shots (swings? strokes? My golf-loving guys could correct me, I’m sure) could be erased with a quick click on the “Mulligan” button. No ding to my score, no lasting effects, no one had to know!
Sometimes I wish life was like that golf game. I wish I could call a “mulligan” and start the day over – or at least start my kids’ day over! It would be so nice to erase the bad choices, the negative words, the punitive actions that skew our course and send our day spiraling down.
But alas, life is not a video game, is it? And, making things even harder, my actions consistently affect everyone around me. As the mama, I set the tone for our home. I choose how I react or respond to what goes on around me. And my response to that is what really matters.
In my quiet time this morning, I read through Proverbs 31 – the Biblical description of a woman who fears the Lord. Verse 26 says: “She opens her mouth with wisdom and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.”
Today has been one of those more challenging days. I haven’t had a moment of alone time (I’m writing this while rocking my 2-year-old to sleep for his nap) – even my “quiet” time was accompanied by kids bickering and a baby discontent with everything. And I can’t say that I handled it very well either.
So now that I have a moment of relative peace, I am thinking about my morning and the impact that my choices have made. When I’m finished here, I am going to sit down with my big kids and apologize, and ask the Lord for grace to help me live the rest of my day with “the teaching of kindness on my tongue.”
What about you? Do you ever wish for a mulligan? How do you restart when your day gets off poorly?
May the Lord grant us grace and strength as we endeavor to raise our little ones for His glory!
~ Judy
