We had a terrible morning.  Not our worst ever but the worst this school year.

They wouldn’t go upstairs after breakfast to get ready for school.  Then they wouldn’t come downstairs when it was time to go.

I raised my voice.

Alright…I yelled.  I’m not proud, but I  asked multiple times for them to come down, and they did not, so I yelled.

I hate sending them to school after a bad morning.  I rehash my mistakes all day.  And I told them that I felt that way.

But, we’ve been through this time and again – fussing at the to get ready for school each morning.  Sometimes it’s better, but then it cycles back.

So, the whole way home from dropping them off, I asked God what to do about it.  How to make our mornings go better.

When I got home, I quickly peeked at Facebook (so NOT what I should have been doing at that point.  I know.  But my mind needed to escape for a moment).

As soon as I opened the app, I saw a post requesting prayer for a young girl who’d been asked not to wear a cross necklace for her school pictures that day.  She chose to take a stand, so the prayer request was for strength and protection for her.

I thought, ‘How crazy.  Can a school actually ask someone not to wear a necklace with a cross on it?’

Whoever heard of such a thing?

Truthfully, I do not know the whole story.  Surely there are extenuating circumstances.

But I stood in my kitchen thinking about it and began to worry about the world where my children are grown up.

That familiar quiver crept into my chin and bottom lip.  That burn flared in my throat.  Hot tears welled in my eyes.

Here I was, wasting energy and precious time worrying over how I was going to get my kids through the morning routine when there were issues of their souls to consider.

Teaching them to trust God is more important.

Leading them to a life in Christ is more pressing.

Preparing them for persecution from a world that does not know the Savior should be my focus.

I’m concentrating on trivial things.  Things of this world.  I’m allowing Satan to distract me with details while my children’s eternal souls are at stake.

Whoa!  Hold on!  This is getting a little too “out there,” right?  I’m taking it too far.  We’re just talking about two kids who won’t get ready for school in the morning.  (Two kids who are in fifth and first grade, by the way, so we’ve been doing this morning routine thing for long, long time).  No need to bring their souls and their salvation into it, right?

I mean, they have to learn to get ready for school.  A mom’s job is to prepare her kids to live independently – part of that is learning to get ready for the day…so they do need to learn this lesson.

But what’s more important?  What deserves more of my focus?  How do I learn to balance the practical, real life, day-to-day lessons they need to get through life with the eternal lessons that matter for their souls?

I think that’s the real question: how do I balance everything?

How do I keep everything in perspective?

Seriously.  This isn’t a rhetorical question…

Parents who’ve been there and done that –  How do I do this?  How do I balance the everyday and the eternal?