How To Fix The Broken Mondays

I watched my daughter play this morning for quite some time while the laundry spun and the dishwasher swished and the vacuum beckoned.

She'd get up on all fours and work her way over to a toy, and then back again. Rolling and smiling and rolling again.

It's Monday.

I used to think Mondays were broken.

Irretrievably broken.

Because we wake up on Monday and it's time to get at it.

Get to work.
Make the money.
Or, not make any money. But, work anyway.

Mondays just always felt broken to me.

So I tried to shake them up and ring them out and tinker with them and I've spent a lot of years, especially as a young mother, trying to figure out how to FIX Mondays.

What if I DON'T do any laundry? Maybe Monday will be better.

What if we order pizza on Mondays and I DON'T cook anything? Maybe?

What if I just YELL ALL DAY AT EVERYBODY AND EVERYTHING and Monday can kiss my butt?

I finally came to realize that Mondays aren't the problem.

I am.

I love to play. (Hello, Saturday.)

And, I love to rest. (Ahh, Sunday.)

Right? Don't we all?

And, weekends mean backup parenting and ball games and out with friends and playing in the backyard and sleeping in. (Well, ideally. Five kids, here.) Weekends are easier. And, more fun.

And, then, like a big dark cloud, Monday looms.

Does the anticipation of a Monday really have to be like this?, I started asking myself.

So I went hunting for a real solution to my perpetual case of the Mondays.

I sought out God's idea of Monday.

Here's what I found:

The very first image we ever have of God is on Monday - the very first day of His, and our, work week. And, you know what He's doing when we first get a glimpse of Him?

Working.

Creating.

Getting to it.

His idea of Monday was and IS:

And, God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God saw that the light was good. Genesis 1:3

Monday.
Light.
The very beginning of His best work.

My problem has always been that I've looked at Mondays as:

"Darkness came in and stole all the light."

And, well - that's just not God's way.

So, now - I've stopped trying to fix Mondays.

And, I've begun working on me.

I don't know that Mondays will ever be easy. Oh, how I wish the laundry would just do itself and the vacuum Roomba its way all over the Crumbfest that I live in.

And, I'm certainly not banking on Mondays conjuring up thoughts of rainbows and unicorns and lollipops either.

But, if God started His great work on Monday.

And, He made something as awesome as light out of the darkness that loomed above.

And, He looked back at the end of the day and was pleased with the work He'd done?

Then maybe, as I seek to be more like Him with the work He's given me...

I can do that, too.