The Importance of Taking my Three Year Old to the Potty.

At the almost end of a very long day, at a meeting to which I was a little bit very late, in the back of a crowded room where I was trying to herd sneak in three kiddos without drawing attention, you whispered to me in a defeats-the-purpose-of-a-whisper kind of whisper, “Mommy. I need to go potty.”

I drew in my breath and closed my eyes and faltered for a second. But potties can’t wait long for three year olds and so almost as soon as I got to the meeting I was exiting the room again to find the nearest potty.

“Come on, hurry, we need to hurry. Come on, honey. I’m already late. I didn’t come here to take you to the potty. That’s not why I’m here.”

Wait a minute. It’s not?

As soon as the words left my mouth I heard them, actually heard what I was saying to you, my daughter. 

I’m not here to take you to the potty?

Because, now that I think about it, that’s exactly why I’m here.

Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary.

I’m worried about being late. No, I’m worried about what other people might think of me because I am late. I am bothered by not being able to sit in a meeting like a normal grownup rather than wrangling three ants-in-their-pants children in the back of the room with any semblance of dignity. 

But really? Only one thing is necessary. Only one thing really matters.

And right now? That one thing is you.

Because in the middle of worries and distractions and inconveniences, my Savior really only asks me to sit at His servant feet and take His yoke and bear His heart to the least of these. And right here, right now, is an opportunity for me to lay down my life for you. To meet your (urgent) need with grace and joy. To see what a gift it is to lay my pride and plans and comfort aside and show you that you are more important than a thousand meetings.

And so as long as you are mine, as long as motherhood is a part of my own upward call in Christ, I am here to take the graciousness of Christ that has been granted to me in my desperate need, and lavish it on you. And when I start to think of it as an inconvenience rather than a privilege, may I find myself like Mary, back at the Savior's feet, choosing the better part, and allowing His grace to cut through my pride and set my heart straight again.

I probably never thought I would sum up my life in a moment like this, but yes. I am here to take you to the potty.