Monday, January 31, 2011

Trying to be Thankful

1 Thessalonians 5:15-19

"Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else.  Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

I have been thinking back to my high school & college days.  In college everything in my apartment was so clean and neat.  Everything had a place & everything was in its place.  Fast forward 20 years... You can do that little blurdledble sound that they do in Wayne's World, and make sure you do your hands too. 

I arrived home from church yesterday around 2:30.  I walk in my beautiful home & it is trashed!  Dishes from lunch everywhere, Hopson's papers are covering the kitchen table, dirty clothes thrown on the floor, stinky lacrosse pads smelling up my laundry room, backpacks have thrown-up a lot of their contents onto my counters, toys scattered over the floor, hunting clothes scattered all in my bedroom, guns in a corner.  UGH!  I'm looking around & wondering why I spend any time doing any thing for these messy people.  I just wanted to lay down & cry.  I work all week cleaning, folding & putting away.  The weekend comes & it's all undone.  For any dads reading this, imagine you've been working on a HUGE project all week working a lot of overtime & then in one stroke of the keyboard it's all deleted.  That's how Sunday was for me.  It was bad, and to top it off we had a crazy day.  Can anyone out there understand where I am at this point in time, or am I the only one who has a messy family?

Well now it's Monday.  Last night I spent a fair amount of time having to point things out to the 5 & tell them exactly how I wanted things picked up.  Wow, I thought I was out of the toddler phase.  I felt like I needed to start singing 'the clean-up song'.  You know which one I talking about.  They did pretty well, it's not totally pristine, but I guess it will pass. 

When I have days like yesterday I find it very hard to be grateful.  "Give thanks in all things" was not my attitude last night.  I kept thinking that if they all would clean-up & quit stressing me out I could be thankful.  But that is not what God calls me to do.  I should find something to be thankful for.  There is plenty there, but as I sat there looking at the upheaval, I had a very hard time finding it.  Does anyone else struggle with this or am I the only ungrateful wretch out here?  I know that how I felt about my family is how God should  feel about me sometimes.  I've cleaned this mess up so many times & you keep making a mess of everything!  But, God has something I so desperately need...more of Him & less of me.  So for today, that is my prayer, that there will be more of God & less of me.  As I do things I will do them for His glory.  It doesn't matter that it is picking up & washing dirty clothes, cleaning dirty dishes, vacuuming the floor & putting the last bit of toys into the toy box.  I'm a mom, it's my job, ordained by God himself & I will do it & be grateful that I have the honor of being the mom.

Finding thankfulness in today & Y'all be blessed beyond measure,
~ashley

1 comment:

  1. Stop beating yourself up! Drive on up the street, check out my family room, and you'll have a whole new perspective on your mess :)

    ReplyDelete

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