The route that I take to and from work each day has been under construction for months, and each day on the way to and from work, it has caused me delays. At first, I was very tempted to complain about the inconvenience. But each time I have felt the temptation to complain, I have heard my Keilan-boy in the back seat cheering on the “Diggers!” and “Cranes!” and “Work trucks!” and I am challenged to once again find joy in my journey: even when it is under construction.  This morning on our drive to childcare and work, we were able to avoid a messy looking stretch, and while I let out a sigh of relief, Keilan let out a moan of disappointment as we turned away: “Mom, no! Not turn. This way: diggers!” I assured him that there would be more road construction ahead, that delays were still coming; and I laughed to myself as I determined that he was the only one in all of rush hour traffic who would be appeased by such an assurance.

It is the beginning of another school year; and along with a classroom full of rambunctious first graders, I was also gifted with their germs. Though I thought I had built up a decent immunity to elementary-age illness over my career in education, my year away must have weakened my immunities because after only three days with students I came down with a horrible sore throat and headache. I am currently on day 5 of this particular bug, and while I am actually starting to feel a bit better, I have no voice. When I got up this morning, I didn’t think much of it. I assumed that it would get better as the day progressed. However, by the time I dropped the boys off at their childcare provider’s home, I was barely able to tell her about their early morning antics. At school, the decision was made to find me a guest teacher and to send me home. It took a little while to get things settled, but I had my lesson plans pulled together and was handing my class off to another teacher a little before 10:00.

As I left the building, I was feeling irritated that the day was working out the way it had: it is never easy to miss a day of school, and it seems there is a potential for an absence to be particularly detrimental this early in the year. But as I started my drive home, I could picture a certain little two-year old of mine in the backseat cheering on the construction crews, and I decided that I could choose to admire the “diggers and cranes” of an unplanned day “off” instead of getting caught up in the inconveniences and discomfort of laryngitis.

So, today, I am finding joy in laryngitis and road construction.  Maybe laryngitis is God’s way of telling me to slow down and rest for a day; maybe this is a little  scheduled maintenance, some construction that was necessary to the successful completion of my journey.  But in spite of questioning “why” I have laryngitis, I will choose instead to find joy in this time. Rather than simply wish the inconvenience and discomfort away, I will choose to enjoy the rest and to be grateful I can pick my boys up a little bit early today for some extra family time tonight.  Maybe we can even take advantage of the extra time by driving through a little more road construction than we need to on the drive home tonight 😉

This Guy Inspires Joy 🙂