Probably 90% of my life is the every day stuff. The cleaning, cooking,laundry, errands around town and endless small tasks.
Anyone else have a life like that?
When I go blog surfing and find people who hate the every day stuff it makes me sad that, really, what they're hating is 90% of the life God gave them upon this planet.
(You may want to pause and let that sink in.)
Well, I used to be there too. During the dreadful 80's (as I not-so-affectionately call them) I began buying into the hype that homemaking was for drudges who had settled for living in Nowheresville. I even bought the magazines which reaffirmed that opinion.
It's sad to buy into a lie. Sometimes it requires years to buy out of it. I know.
Anyone want to enjoy an extra 90% of your life? Start enjoying the cleaning, cooking, laundry, errands and endless small tasks.
In Sarah Ban Breathnach's book, Simple Abundance, she wrote about Nell B. Nichols, her favorite literary domestic writer from the 1920's, 30's and 40's. Nell was the Martha Stewart of her day. Here are my two favorite sentences from Sarah's book:
"Reading her columns is like being spoon-fed black cherry pudding: soothing, comforting, completely satisfying, yet a bit piquant. After an hour with Nell I always want to bob my hair, slip into a simple drop-waist cotton chemise, tie on a checked apron with a bow, and listen to Scott Joplin on the wireless as I dye unbleached muslin curtains 'to pretty up the attic windows.'"
Those two sentences, alone, make me want to jump up and clean my house from basement to attic. To spin to my Big Band records on the player, throw open the windows, tie on an apron and go soak the dishes in sudsy water. Suddenly, cleaning house for my family sounds like the most delicious, wonderful thing I could possibly do for them at the moment.
What am I really getting at? It matters what I read.
It matters that I not fill my head with words which only breed an ugly discontent within me.
Yes, I should read articles which will challenge me to broaden my thinking, but only within godly boundaries.
Unlike many people I've met on the internet, I respect Biblical boundaries. I'm learning to live within those boundaries and--wonder of wonders--I'm finding incredible joy there.
Words are powerful--both written and spoken ones. They have a tendency to go down deep and stay awhile, perhaps remain there for the rest of my years.
Lying words have a tendency to hang-out near the wheel of my ship and snatch it away from me and sail me to dark, choppy seas. Places I never intended to go, ones from which it's hard to find my way back home.
Out on Life's ocean, I am learning to steer clear of those.
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Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof." ... Proverbs 18:21
One Sunday night Tom was watching sports (don't ask me which type) and as I straightened the things on my sunroom table I heard this slogan from the tv-- "Ford: Built for the road ahead."
I swung around to the tv screen and thought, "Hey! I like that." And I wrote it down on a scrap of paper to later share with you, but of course, I can't find it anywhere now. But in just one simple sentence that slogan summed up what God has been doing in my life these past ten years: He's been building me for the road ahead.
Preparing me for the far-off years I cannot yet see.
Teaching me how to live with Grace today so that I can live with Grace tomorrow, too.
Emptying me of myself so He can pour in more of Himself.
Teaching me to do today what I won't regret having done tomorrow.
And on and on.
Yes, for ten years it's been like that. But the sad thing is that there were 24 years before these last ten when God was trying so hard to build me for the road ahead, but I was kicking and screaming the whole way. Mostly it felt like I was kicking against the same brick wall built across the middle of the road. One I'd constructed brick-by-brick myself, but had blamed others for placing it there.
It always felt like I was moving ahead about one measly inch a year. I'd look at other Christians and think they must have been sprinkled with heavy duty fairy dust or favor because they seemed to be growing by big leaps and bounds. But not me. No, I was crawling like the baby I still was.
The difference now? One word--cooperation. I finally learned how to cooperate with God and get hooked into His agenda--not mine.
And that's what my whole blog is about so I'll not reiterate the details in this post. I'll just say that it is possible to stunt your growth as a Christian. To remain a baby in the spirit realm and look like one of those people who make you so sad when you walk past them--full-grown adults who have the mind of a six-year old.
Don't tell me it's not possible. That was me for many, many years.
It feels so good to finally grow. To let God build me for the road ahead, wherever that road may take me.
Huh?
Well, a couple of the comments to my last post reminded me of something which changed my whole life years ago. Reminded me that what people do to me is rarely the Big Issue--it's my own reactions which matter the most to God.
Take this verse, for instance:
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Ephesians 6:12
My take on that? It's not about what people are doing to me.
It's about seeing where the real attack is coming from.
And it's about seeing the Big Picture--how God uses Sandpaper People to smooth our rough edges. It's about iron sharpening iron in order to become a more useful instrument.
And it's about Me dying to becoming angry at people... and allowing their behavior to ruin my day (and my life)...and blowing-up when poked...and wanting to get revenge (albeit in subtle, unpinpointable ways)...
It's about Me letting God slice away at the overly-sensitive parts of me which get offended when people say the wrongs things at the wrong time... It's about God being more concerned that I don't say the wrong things at the wrong time.
It's about Me not having to be in control of everything around me...
And it's about Me becoming empty of myself--self, self,self-- so that more room is made for more of God. His likeness, His love, His depth of longsuffering with imperfect people. I can either be full of God or full of myself. I desire the latter, so I must die:
"No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other." Matthew 6:24
So you see, sometimes it is all about me... It's all about me needing to change. It's all about me wanting God to change me more than I want Him to make my life better by changing the flawed people in my life.
Because the amazing thing is that my life will become better when God makes me more like Jesus. Everybody looks different--better-- when you look at them through His eyes of love.
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