Thankful for Bad Days

I admit it, I'm a bit frustrated tonight. I know its more than just all this (it's just added stress), but this preschooler is getting the better of me. It's like he's trying to annoy me and do everything he can to frustrate me. As soon as I get home, he locks me out of the house (as Stephanie drives away). I had a key, but that's not the point. I put him in his room, and he proceeds to do the usual playing with the doorknob and opening and shutting the door routine. A little while later I discover a domino he took from my parents house (because he wanted it... that's called stealing, son), while I catch him drawing with a crayon on a random envelope he pulled from Stephanie's desk. Again, turned out not to be a big deal, but still. At dinner he proceeds to play with his cup and spill his water (again). Then he's pulling Aubrey around, and taking her toys, and pulling out Stephanie's craft stuff. "No, son. You can't use that." He wants to take a bath, which I let him. But instead of playing in the tub, he proceeds to drop articles of clothing in the water, and unroll all the toilet paper, and mess with every item in the bathroom. I discover all this as I'm trying to get Aubrey into bed and emptying a dirty cloth diaper in the toilet (as well as another that I found in the trash can) while trying to now simultaneously run the diapers into the laundry room while keeping our little toddler from playing in the toilet or getting into something else she's not suppose to. I'll confess, I lost my cool (for a second time tonight). But the nights not over yet. Once I do get Aubrey into bed, I discover a cluttered bookshelf (he pulled half his books out again) and a damaged desk (part of his bunk bed--given to us by my wonderful brother), where he apparently spilled some water on a Lego magazine and left it. I was able to get most of the ink up (although ruining a white wash cloth in the process). We read our Bible, read stories, and I apologized for getting angry and losing my cool. I prayed for a while, even after Elijah fell asleep. Then I go into the kitchen to discover his kid scissors and a small pile of tags where apparently he cut off ALL the tags off one of Aubrey's new stuffed animals. And I'm pretty sure I've left some stuff out... but right now, I just want to go to bed... but, in all this frustration, I feel compelled to share my prayer (said slowly and through tears as my son quickly drifted off to sleep), which went roughly something like this:

"Oh, great God. Thank you for this day. We thank you for the good days, which give us just a taste of the joy that we will one day feel when we enter your presence. And thank you also for those days like today, when we experience your great forgiveness, and grace, and mercy, and a greater understanding of the depth of your love. Father, you created this massive planet that dwarfs in comparison to our enormous Sun, that is only one of a billion in our vast Solar System which is just a speck in our infinite universe. Yet you fashioned this unfathomable cosmos with your fingers, and you hold it all in your hands. Yet you still made us—tiny, insignificant, us—in your image. Yet we have marred that image, chose to rebel and not trusted in You. Yet you love us anyway, certainly not because we are anything special, because I know that I am certainly nothing in this world and its history. But because you are that big, that great, You choose to care about the smallest things in your creation. Lord, thank you for loving us when we least deserve it. Help me be a better example of a Godly Man. Help me be patient with my children, and to teach them who you are and to speak boldly to them and others about the great things you have done. Help us point to you in all things. Amen."