I’ve been cleaning the house all morning. Well… we (my husband and I) have cleaned the house all week really.. And let me tell ya! It’s such a tiresome thing to do! The work never seems to end with three children. There’s always interruptions. There’s always more mess to clean up. Someone inevitably ends up hurt and I have to stop and rock them for five minutes when all I can think of is the endless list of chores that has to be done by this evening. It tends to get very weary VERY quickly for all parents even if you have the best intentions at heart.
After cleaning my sons room with him and standing my ground to a very adamant two year old who does NOT want to help.. We were finally done with that task, and moving on to about forty more when I sat down to take a break. I open up Facebook for a moment of escape and scroll through the daily feed. I came across a Bible Verse my friend jokingly posted about staying away from fools (due to the COVID-19 crisis) I was looking up the verse in my Bible app when I came across this! (Thanks Jon! 😉)
– This EPIC verse that made my heart stand still, and for a moment everything fell into place –
Before I was bombarded by cries and screams from two children whom I offered to feed just minutes ago and are now begging for food as if they’ve been starved… 🤦🏼♀️ ahh, everything goes on hold when you are a parent! Anyway, The epic verse goes like this:
WHOA!! 🤯🎁 I was almost moved tears by this verse which stilled my heart almost completely… if it weren’t for my kids in full whine mode. I put my phone down to heat up food and with one kid following me everywhere I turned, and the other running through the house crying “I want fooooooooddddd IM HUNNNGRYYYYY.” I’m just about to yell, “I NEED SILENCE!!” 😤😭
And it hits me. If you want an abundant harvest, this is the mess you’ll deal with.
From the moment each child was born we committed them to the Lord.. We spent months decorating nurseries, praying for, and then over each child, and planning outfits, baby dedications, picture seshes, and hospital stays. We were so abundantly grateful for each of our blessings. BUT.. We also had this idea that when we got married and owned our own home it would look like one of those fun eclectic colorful Pinterest homes you see and envy. And we THOUGHT we could teach our children how to be respectful and clean up after themselves and we could have the best of both worlds. (Let’s all laugh together shall we? 😂) The only thing is, in reality, no one can have their cake and eat it too. The reality is that one of those dreams was from the Lord and the other was from me. ERGO- not God.
Whoever said Cleanliness was next to Godliness never read that from the Bible. Sure it’s less stressful to be in a clean environment, but is it less stressful on everyone in the family to maintain the said clean environment?? 🤔
And to add to that, My children will either remember how I treated them harshly and angrily because I was at my wits end with the messes that they ignored along with my repeated requests for them to clean the messes.. OR… they will remember how I calmly redirected their attention and cleaned up the messes together, even though I didn’t partake in making the messes with them. One of those is taking on a Christ like attribute of gentleness and the other isn’t. (my next blog post will be on Gentleness!)
MAN!! How could I get SO MUCH GRACE from ONE PASSAGE of scripture that I wasn’t even intending to read?? -That’s how God works!
So today, I wanted to share with you, if you’re feeling fed up about the messes in your most likely quarantined home. If you feel like you’re drowning in children and can’t escape them. If you feel as though you’ll never live up to the unrealistic expectations of Pinterest homes. If you project the messes of your home or your kids unwillingness to clean onto yourself as a failure. (please don’t do that!) If you beat yourself up about your endless chore lists and set deadlines for yourself to complete things just to wear yourself out.
If the story of Mary and Martha with Jesus in Luke 10 seems to resonate with your “I must do all the things and I must do them NOW!” Mentality. Take this time to really ask God what it looks like to CHILL. Just be still. And know he’s working all things out for His Glory. Ask Him what that looks like on a daily basis. Ask Him to show you how to see what He sees and not what we see. Honestly I don’t know what it means to be still yet. I’m learning that too.
I need you to KNOW that no matter what, we are raising the next generation of preachers, teachers, apostles, prophets, and evangelists. And in order to have that abundant harvest we prayed for over our children, we will have a mess or two to clean up along the way! ❤️
Kids + Canvas By: Dani Russell 