Apparently I needed more accountability...

We're in Alabama this week (more on that later - although on my blog, I guess this one will appear after my next one...oh well!) and travelling, well, it's just not really my thing. My terrific two girlfriends love to travel. Overseas, even better. Me, I like my home. I like knowing where my chocolate is hidden (sorry, Babe) and the best way to get where I want to go. I know where a good restaurant is and I know the places to avoid. More than this, I love, love my bed. I have what I lovingly call my "squishy pillow" which is full of downy soft feathers and surrounded in a flannel case which I place beside me simply to give me a snuggled in feeling. I also have a stuffed rabbit called Lucy whose sole purpose is to allow me to hold her and keep my arm from falling asleep when I do. (Really, she's purely functional...no sentimental attachment!) Oh, and then, of course there's Reed, who laughingly says he enjoys his third of the bed!

Anyway, I divulge all of this so you know how thoroughly out of my element I am when I am on the road. Huntsville is actually truly lovely but there have been some bumps along the way. Some minor inconveniences. The kinds of things, among many, that we can choose to let upset our whole frame of mind, take our state of being from just peachy to mildly irritated to explode at any minute. In retrospect, the kinds of things that remind me that I am so very inclined, bent, to see the world revolving around me. To lose sight of the bigger picture.

Now, not to say that suddenly and inexplicably finding myself outside of my hotel room with an over-tired daughter and overloaded arms holding a room key that no longer will complete its function is a part of God's grander scheme (though, it very well could be)...but maybe the bigger picture is simply remembering what little is under my control, giving a sigh, and finding a way to make it "fun" for my sleepy little girl.

Instead, I vent a bit of my frustration, and this increasingly perceptive little girl takes the cue from her now annoyed mother and begins to screw up her face and vent as well. First the "Waaaaah!" of a cry, and then the whining, "Moooooommmmmmyyyyyyyyyyyyyy, I want to go insiiiiiiiiiiiiide! Why won't it opeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen!!?" Then more boohooing.

It hits me like Reed's alarm clock did this morning, I thought, "If my first reaction hadn't been one of frustration, or such as whatever it was, she wouldn't be doing this. As I've known all along, but now even more so, she is doing exactly as she's been taught to do by *gulp* me!"

I quickly steeled myself, dropped what I could there at the door and in my best oh-this-is-going-to-be-so-much-fun voice, I encouraged her to go with me back down the elevator to get our key reinstated. We did and by the time we made it back up to our room and I got her down for a rest, I was thanking God for another shadow of accountability - this little girl He gave me. He is wanting me to show her a better way. A way of selflessness and love. A positive, glorifying way of seeing our lives and the little inconveniences that come our way. It's worth it for Him, and, now, it's worth it for her.