My Far-from-Perfect Sunday and Changing my Character

It's Monday again! Ambilis! Sunday just flew past my face. Hindi ko sya nafeel. Lucky are you who have two-day weekends, but for those like me who only get one restday, I feel yah!

Yesterday was a really chilly day. The kind of day when the bed's magnetic pull is too strong. It was raining quite hard here so we weren't able to go to church. In an ideal setup, I would stay in bed all day wearing pajamas and reading a book with Yuri by my side content to be playing quietly. But life doesn't always happen that way.

One of the reasons why I didn't get to enjoy my Sunday that much is that first, I didn't get to go outside the house and second, I had to do a general cleaning of the bedroom. There are actually a third and a fourth reason, but let's get to that later.

We finally had to say goodbye to our sidecar crib arrangement, which served us well for a year. I actually liked it because while we were technically co-sleeping, I still had my personal space. No, the problem was that Yuri was getting too big for the crib. So last Saturday, we bought a double bed.

Yes, just a double bed. We couldn't buy a bigger bed because our stairway was too narrow. In fact, getting the double bed upstairs caused not a few scrapes on the banister. But we made it through. Yehess.

(I was thinking, good luck sa new house because it had an even narrower stair case. But let's cross the bridge when we get there.)

Here's our old arrangement:

And after more than 3 hours' worth of intense labor and cleaning, here's a new sleeping arrangement for Yuri and me:

You might be wondering why we were such in a hurry to buy a new bed. Well, my parents just chanced over a furniture sale in Gaisano Mall, and this bed (frame + Uratex mattress) was only P7k+. Original price was near P10k. Okay!

I am a bit nervous because the reason why I had to switch to a sidecar arrangement was Yuri falling off the bed. To be safe, I placed the old mattress on the floor. Just to be sure. But ultimately, I'm praying God send his angels every night to, um, keep Yuri from being too malikot while sleeping.

What's the third reason my Sunday didn't become a real restday? Yuri refused to take a nap on the new bed, that's what. It was getting on my nerves already because I'm sure he's sleepy. In fact, Yuri is almost always a good sleeper until now. And it went beyond naptime. Before dinner, he was already asking for tuyog (sleep), so after eating quickly, I was sure he'd sleep almost immediately. Well, no. The boy endured another 30 minutes of battling sleep despite his obvious sleepiness. Hay naku!

Now, the fourth reason happened when Yuri finally fell asleep. I was looking forward to having quiet time and finally being able to talk with Job after an entire week. I was looking forward to it the whole day. Unfortunately, our network didn't want to cooperate. I'm looking at you, Smart! Job can receive my messages easily, but I didn't receive any of his. Talk about a cherry on top of my sundae-sweet Sunday!

Of course I was really frustrated. Aside from the fact that my body was tired, I also needed some emotional recharging by talking to Job. I thought it was unfair. Now, when we complain that the world is being unfair to us, aren't we technically complaining that God is being unfair to us? I realized that last night. I was being upset with Him for not giving me a perfect Sunday. What? What a brat!

God convicted me and told me: You are so concerned about physically recharging (resting) and emotionally recharging (talking), but what about your spirit? Is your heart in the right place? Did you even set aside time for me today? (I didn't get to go to church).

I was ashamed of myself, but thankfully, my God is not a condemning God. This is the Word he gave me:

Isn't that wonderful? I really like it when his commandment bear a promise. But the bigger point here is that obedience paves way to blessings. In this case, God was telling me to be more patient, to be slower to anger, to be more like Jesus. He's more concerned with my character rather than my convenience. How great is it that a wonderful God like him is deeply concerned to build the character of a sinner like me?

In hindsight, I did pray the night before Sunday that He build my character and make me more like him. I just didn't expect all those tests to happen in one day. Next time I'll specify.

To conclude my Sunday story, no, it didn't turn out perfect in the end. Yuri kept waking up because he was "naninibago" with the bed. He's like that with new people and places. No, Job and I weren't able to talk at all. But God wasn't concerned about changing the circumstances; he's bigger work concerns changing my character - and it's a work in a progress.