I could write a short (not so short) book of bathroom stories.
Over the years, when it came to bathroom supervision in public places, I definitely drew the short straw having four girls and one boy.
Darrin would take Jake and they were in and out in all of three minutes.
I, on the other hand, usually emerged fifteen minutes later, shaking my head, laughing, or nearly crying at the mishaps in that forsaken place.
But, today, one story in particular sticks out in my mind…
We were at the Iowa State Fair and everyone had to go the bathroom. So, as I’m giving the “Don’t touch anything and use your foot to flush” speech to my oldest girls, Paige, who was three at the time, goes into the stall and locks the door.
She then says, “Mom, I locked the door all by myself.”
“Yeah, I see that you did that.”
Then I wait…knowing all too well what is coming next. Of course, the lock sticks and now she can’t get out.
The other girls high tail it out of there to go stand outside with Darrin and Jake because they’re scared I’m going to ask them to crawl under the door and help her.
(That was my plan exactly.)
Darn it!
So, here I am now, with my head pressed up against the crack of the door, talking Paige through how to slide the handle and a lady walks in and sees me peeking through the stall door.
Lovely.
There is a stall open, but she pauses for a moment and I know for a FACT that she is thinking…”Will this weirdo look at me, too, if I go into that stall?”
I smile at her awkwardly and explain that my daughter locked the door. She doesn’t smile back. So, now I want to tell her that I’m not a weirdo, I’m just a mom and sometimes that means that I have to do weird things.
But, I don’t.
I just let her think what she wants while praying she doesn’t take my picture and put it on the “People of the Iowa State Fair” page.
Finally, Paige opens the door.
Hallelujah!
So I ask her, “How did you reach the toilet paper?”
And she says…”I didn’t. You said not to touch anything.”
Oh my.
So, I had to create a new speech…Don’t touch anything except for the door handle AND the toilet paper. Then flush the toilet with your foot.
And…wash your hands.
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You know, we laugh, but aren’t we all like that sometimes? We want to do things all on our own.
“Look, God! I did it all by myself!”
“I see that you did, that”.
Then He waits, knowing all too well what will happen next.
Often times, when we try to do things on our own, we get stuck in places we don’t want to be.
As the New Year approaches, ask God to direct your path. He wants good things for you. Trust that His plan is better than anything we could could come up with on our own and in those times when we mess up, and we will, thank Him for the grace He gives.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” Proverbs 3:5
