After our morning walk with Gus, we had a good snack and settled down to watch a bit of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. (First episode I've caught... I've been dying to see this. I love his initiative! So cool) Anyway, I was cleaning up after her snack and telling her about our grocery store run, and got no response after a question. Thinking that she was distracted by the TV, I turned around to ask again, and saw this:
So, she is blissfully napping away... and I am soaking up some much needed free time. I just had a great read over at the Desiring God blog. Here's the chunk I loved:
"Look at your children in faith, and see how many people will be ministered to by your ministering to them. How many people will your children know in their lives? How many grandchildren are represented in the faces around your table now?
So, if mothers are strategically situated to impact missions so greatly, why do we see so little coming from it? I think the answer to this is quite simple: sin. Discontent, pettiness, selfishness, resentment. Christians often feel like the right thing to do is to be ashamed about what we have. We hear that quote of Jim Elliot’s and think that we ought to sell our homes and move to some place where they need the gospel.
But I’d like to challenge you to look at it differently. Giving up what you cannot keep does not mean giving up your home, or your job so you can go serve somewhere else. It is giving up yourself. Lay yourself down. Sacrifice yourself here, now. Cheerfully wipe the nose for the fiftieth time today. Make dinner again for the people who don’t like the green beans. Laugh when your plans are thwarted by a vomiting child. Lay yourself down for the people here with you, the people who annoy you, the people who get in your way, the people who take up so much of your time that you can’t read anymore. Rejoice in them. Sacrifice for them. Gain that which you cannot lose in them.
It is easy to think you have a heart for orphans on the other side of the world, but if you spend your time at home resenting the imposition your children are on you, you do not. You cannot have a heart for the gospel and a fussiness about your life at the same time. You will never make any difference there if you cannot be at peace here. You cannot have a heart for missions, but not for the people around you. A true love of the gospel overflows and overpowers. It will be in everything you do, however drab, however simple, however repetitive.
God loves the little offerings. Given in faith, that plate of PB&J’s will feed thousands. Given in faith, those presents on Christmas morning will bring delight to more children than you can count. Offered with thankfulness, your work at home is only the beginning. Your laundry pile, selflessly tackled daily, will be used in the hands of God to clothe many. Do not think that your work does not matter. In God’s hands, it will be broken, and broken, and broken again, until all who have need of it have eaten and are satisfied. And even then, there will be leftovers."
I totally needed the encouragement as I know I feel like as soon as I clean up from a meal, I immediately pull out prep for the next one.
And onwards we go. I've relished the quiet moment, and I'm happy with that! Our day will be an exciting one as we prepare for Father's Day tomorrow! I've got cinnamon rolls planned for the morning, though depending on how long this little nap lasts, I may have to skip the amazing Pioneer Woman's recipe and just go for the Grands! Either way, it smells delicious, and makes everyone in my family happy!
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