Red Rain Boots

Before I was a mom myself, I was never going to be that mom. You know the one with those kids. Yep, I think we all do. I think if we are honest with ourselves, we all have judged others before we were in a certain position ourselves. Whether it be judgement in parenting, marriage, or something else in our lives; we have all judged.

It just hit me tonight full force that I have become that mom. The one I certainly was NEVER going to be. It was about 7:30 p.m. and our girls had just finished their baths. We had them almost all ready for bed when I realized that Zoelle was out of pull-ups (I haven't found a good cloth alternative to pull-ups) and we needed to go buy some. I could have just gone myself, but I like to have my family with me. So, with the girls in their pj's and the hope that Meridian would fall asleep in her carseat, we got ready to go. I asked Zoelle to go get her boots on and this is how our conversation went:

Z: "Ok mom."
Me: "Thanks honey and hurry up, ok?"
Z: "Mom do I wear my orange boots or pink ones."
Me: "Honey you don't have orange ones, just red or pink ones and the red ones are rain boots for the rain. Wear the pink ones ok?"
Z: No answer
Me: "Zoelle did you hear me?"
Z: "Yep."

Sure enough what does Zoelle come over to me wearing? The red ones. I looked at Chris and declared, "No way am I allowing her to wear those. What in the world would people say? It's bad enough the kids are going to the store in their jammies. I was never going to be one of those moms!". It hit me then that I had somehow in my mind determined that others would judge me for the red rain boots and pajamas. I certainly didn't want someone seeing my kids dressed like that for fear of what they would think!

It was the look Chris gave me that made me realize I was completely foolish. Who cares what people see. I mean they may have looked at Zoelle with her red rain boots, pink pajamas, fleece coat, and hat and thought what horrible parents to bring their kids in Target looking like that. But those people didn't know my heart, they didn't realize that all I wanted was my family with me shopping. To spend just ten more minutes together before the end of the day. And you know what? It's ok that they didn't know my heart, for I once was in their shoes too declaring that I would never be that mom.

Tonight it took a stubborn little girl and her red rain boots to realize that God wanted to teach me a lesson in judging others. What will it take you?