Joyless

Again,  I spent an ENTIRE evening grouching.  My foster daughter needed a new dress for her 5 year old pictures.  There are few things I hate more than shopping...and dress shopping with a nearly 5 year old diva...YIKES! 

She and I have different tastes, values, and interpretations of "cute".  She wanted to buy everything in the store...which irritated me.  She kept picking out weird accessories that very much did not match the dress she decided on (not even in the same ballpark).  She literally pranced around the dressing room runway style...which I did not enjoy or think was cute.  She wanted to have a loud, lengthy discussion about bras and "boobies" as we passed the lingerie section. Everything she did got on m'nerves. 
EV-ER-Y-THING. 

After we pulled away from the store, I went over the experience in my head.  I am a monster.  What should have been a sweet time of bonding and helping her to feel special turned into me being bitchy and her ramping up the annoyances. 

I repented to God in my little red minivan.  I felt terrible.  I asked God to help me be joyful.  It's not right to be joyful all of the time; but when my bad attitude hurts someone else...it's not right.  I took an opportunity to show this little girl love and let her know how special she was and turned it into a lesson in eye rolling and irritated sighs.