Day 6&7 - Thursday, October 6 & Friday, October 7 - RESET

I am a child of the 80s.  And while I have fond memories of playing with my Cabbage Patch dolls and finding new charms to add to my totally rad plastic charm necklace collection, nothing makes me feel more connected to my childhood than thinking back on all the times I played Atari.  Nothing beats it, right?  Not even a pair of brand new hightops with velcro straps.  I loved playing Atari.  Pac Man, Miss Pac Man, Pole Position, Centipede, you name it, we probably had it.  And I would play until my eyes bulged out of my head with my mother screaming, "If you don't turn that thing off, I'm gonna ..."  Ahhh, sweet memories.

Yesterday, when I couldn't get online because the Internet was down...all day.  And the night before, I was so tired after making dinner that all I wanted to do was sit down in the kitchen floor and just cry or scream or both.  And after putting my children to bed on that same night, I felt like such an epic failure as a mother since I didn't spend enough time with my kids that day, didn't read to them enough, didn't smile enough, wasn't patient enough, didn't express my love enough, and the list could just keep going...I was reminded of the Atari.

Not that I'm psychotically competitive or anything, but when I would play Atari and the game was not heading in the direction I would like, what did this honest, hard working girl do?  Did I keep playing and accept defeat?  No no no no!  I would simply reach out my sweet little index finger, gently place it on the Atari console, and slap the heck out of that reset button.  YES!  THE RESET BUTTON!  What a brilliant idea!!  Anytime things weren't going my way, I could just hit the reset button and all my insecurities of failure would be wiped away.  Such sweet relief. 

Sometimes I wish life would be that simple, ya know?  When things aren't going the way you want them to, wouldn't it be nice to just hit the reset button?  Act like nothing happened and start all over from scratch? 

At the end of the day, a day where maybe we've just completely blown it, Jesus is our reset button.  When I put my head down on the pillow at night, and all I feel like doing is melting into a puddle of defeat and guilt, He's there.  He looks at me and simply points to the reset button.  On the days you've set your expectations a little too high for yourself, remember there is only One who mastered the stress of life.  Is He your Master?  Don't let defeat keep you from Him.  Re-set.  And reset.