Wednesday
It's Wednesday. It's Wednesday at 4:54pm and there is no noise in my house. There's no TV muttering, there's no stomping, there's no jumping, no one is crying, no one wants a snack or a new diaper. No one needs me right now, at this moment, I'm a free bird. Oh don't get me wrong, there's housework; there's always housework, but no one needs my immediate attention. If this were yesterday, I'd be scrambling to get dinner on the table because I slept a minute past four-thirty and I have to get it on by five to get it cleaned up by six so I can get my shower done and the house picked up and the laundry switched and folded before I grab a diet A&W Root Beer and a bag of cheddar bunnies and run out the door to work. But today is not yesterday. It's today and it's quiet. I will probably do a couple of loads of laundry, make myself half a sandwich and a glass of iced tea for dinner, pick up here and there, *things that Dale will notice so he'll think I worked hard while he was out* and then show up to work a few minutes early at work to the shock and awe of everyone present. Because no one is home but me. For a few hours, it's just me. Here. In my element.
A few weeks ago someone said to me, "Won't you be glad when your life is normal?" I laughed and said, "Have we met? This is normal!" My life, while it takes turns on the wild side and the mild side, is never mellow. It's never slow. It's never been predictable, and it's never been status quo. This is it. It's what I prayed for and it's what I chose. I didn't always love it, I craved the still sweet life of the stay-at-home mom with one little child and a redundancy of day-to-day sameness. But that's because when it got too hard, I wanted out. Not anymore. I love it. I live for it. Bring the noise.
People ask me all the time, "How do you do it?" And I generally give that old standard answer, "You do what you've gotta do." Elizabeth Elliot is famous for her quote, "Do the next thing" and that has been my motto for years. When I don't know what to do next, I do the dishes. There are ALWAYS dishes in my sink. And then I do laundry. After that I'm usually in the mode and there is a surplus of other chores to be done; I choose what I need to do and the rest can wait. Sometimes the rest waits six months. OFTEN the rest waits six months. But it eventually makes the cut and gets done. I don't know. For me rhythm is everything. Establishing some kind of system has always helped me get through the days. Then on the other hand, flexibility is huge too because what worked last week may not work this week. There's one little factor that also helps, it's the magic pill, and that's sleeplessness. I usually get a ton done if I sacrifice my sleep for it. People ask me about Dale's weight loss all the time too and I always tell them that his diet of eating right and exercising have won him HUGE weight loss success, but in the same way I believe his magic pill is the sauna suit. It's sped up the process.
I'm no superwoman; I don't do anything that anyone else couldn't do if we traded places right now. At the core, Jesus Christ is the only reason for anything good in my life. He is the reason I roll out of bed everyday, whatever time it may be day or night. My life pursuit of Him inspires me to do the things I have to in order to get to the things that most thrill me in my pursuit of Him. The things that satisfy my constant hunger for more of Him. There is nothing humdrum about life when you have found treasure and there is hope of it in the end of your journey. Knowing Christ makes me gracious and full of fervor for living. It makes my household gel. Jesus is base. When the world is pulling us all in different directions; we're tired and cranky and getting on each others' nerves and the house is a mess and the fridge is empty, if we all run to home base, nothing else matters. We're home; we're safe.
So many people live their lives trying to force that to exist where it can't, or running from place to person to place hoping to find it, but they come up with shallow counterfeits. Oh that we together might know Him...
But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ-- the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:7-14
A few weeks ago someone said to me, "Won't you be glad when your life is normal?" I laughed and said, "Have we met? This is normal!" My life, while it takes turns on the wild side and the mild side, is never mellow. It's never slow. It's never been predictable, and it's never been status quo. This is it. It's what I prayed for and it's what I chose. I didn't always love it, I craved the still sweet life of the stay-at-home mom with one little child and a redundancy of day-to-day sameness. But that's because when it got too hard, I wanted out. Not anymore. I love it. I live for it. Bring the noise.
People ask me all the time, "How do you do it?" And I generally give that old standard answer, "You do what you've gotta do." Elizabeth Elliot is famous for her quote, "Do the next thing" and that has been my motto for years. When I don't know what to do next, I do the dishes. There are ALWAYS dishes in my sink. And then I do laundry. After that I'm usually in the mode and there is a surplus of other chores to be done; I choose what I need to do and the rest can wait. Sometimes the rest waits six months. OFTEN the rest waits six months. But it eventually makes the cut and gets done. I don't know. For me rhythm is everything. Establishing some kind of system has always helped me get through the days. Then on the other hand, flexibility is huge too because what worked last week may not work this week. There's one little factor that also helps, it's the magic pill, and that's sleeplessness. I usually get a ton done if I sacrifice my sleep for it. People ask me about Dale's weight loss all the time too and I always tell them that his diet of eating right and exercising have won him HUGE weight loss success, but in the same way I believe his magic pill is the sauna suit. It's sped up the process.
I'm no superwoman; I don't do anything that anyone else couldn't do if we traded places right now. At the core, Jesus Christ is the only reason for anything good in my life. He is the reason I roll out of bed everyday, whatever time it may be day or night. My life pursuit of Him inspires me to do the things I have to in order to get to the things that most thrill me in my pursuit of Him. The things that satisfy my constant hunger for more of Him. There is nothing humdrum about life when you have found treasure and there is hope of it in the end of your journey. Knowing Christ makes me gracious and full of fervor for living. It makes my household gel. Jesus is base. When the world is pulling us all in different directions; we're tired and cranky and getting on each others' nerves and the house is a mess and the fridge is empty, if we all run to home base, nothing else matters. We're home; we're safe.
So many people live their lives trying to force that to exist where it can't, or running from place to person to place hoping to find it, but they come up with shallow counterfeits. Oh that we together might know Him...
But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ-- the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:7-14
I get the same question, "how do you do it?"
ReplyDeleteMy reply, "I have it to do".
You are superwoman and everybody knows it.
And, WOW! can you write! Thanks for posting. I always look forward to the next one. You are an inspiration.
If it were not for Christ we would all be "Desperate House Wives!"
ReplyDeleteLong live Superwoman and the proverbs 31 woman's servants!!!!
She had them you know!