Counting it ALL Joy...

"Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.  And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."  James 1:2-4

Jonathan and I have had the privilege to listen to John Moore preach on this passage from James a couple of times.  Each time, the Lord has convicted me to follow His commandment (notice verse 2 is not optional, but written as a command). 
One of the ways we put this into practice early in parenthood is to thank the Lord for little things that seemed like a "trial"at the time.  Our favorite early on, was when the boys would cry for what seemed like days on end we would tell each other, "Praise God they have healthy lungs!"  You see, our boys were born 6 weeks premature, and I was given multiple rounds of steroid shots hoping to grow their lungs before their arrival.  Praise God He had His hand on them from the beginning.  Despite their small stature (4lbs. 3 oz. & 3lbs. 11oz.), they had NO health problems to speak of.  So their infant cries were an easy reminder to praise God for their health. 
All that to say, the past two weeks have been somewhat trying in the mommy world.  First Luke came down with a cold, ran a low grade fever for a few days and then was done.  We were all great and wonderful for a couple of days, until the middle of last week when Levi started to get the same symptoms.  However his has lingered much longer, and he even got a mild case of pink eye with his.  If one sick kid is no fun, imagine back to back kids for two weeks.  :( 
After one particularly exhausting day, we were bathing the boys and waiting for some friends to join us for supper.  The boys love the bath tub and will play until we force them out.  So they had been playing some time, and Levi reached up and handed me what I thought was a bath toy.  I quickly discovered this was no toy at all, but something far more squishy, brown, and stinky than I anything I wanted him playing with.  So we quickly got the boys out of the tub, Jonathan got them dressed, and I started the process of cleaning out the tub.  Only to mutter a quick prayer of thanks, and I'm not kidding this was my prayer.  "Lord, thank you that I get to clean poop out of the bathtub.  This is yet another reminder of healthy boys that are so loved."
This is definitely a prayer I have never prayed, but as soon as I uttered those words I laughed.  I'm such a work in progress, but my heart's desire is to follow the Lord.  My hope is that slowly my default will be to count all trials as joys, big and small!