“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”Colossians 3:23-24
Just before I gave birth to my first-born son, Eli, many veteran moms were quick to advise me to rest when my baby was sleeping. I often heard these words, “The dishes and the laundry will always be there, but you have to take care of yourself so you can take care of that little one.” This becomes the struggle of every young mom’s life. Whenever there is a moment of quiet, you seem to ask yourself, Should I rest right now, or should I get something done? In a way, it feels like a coin toss. When you
finally make your decision, most of the time, you wish you had chosen the other.
After adding two more children into our home, in time, it became easier for me to let things go. There is a quote that resonated well in our house that says, “Please excuse the mess, our standards have lowered with each child.” It’s very common for people to walk into my house to see a mound of unfolded laundry on the couch, a sink full of dishes and toys sprawled all over the floor. However, just because I did not get to those things that day, does not mean they did not bother me. I cannot tell you how many times I loathed doing the mundane, everyday duties that seem to go unnoticed. You know, the things that always seem to be there but cannot be neglected, like sweeping the kitchen floor. If it doesn’t get done, it’s noticeable. But when you do it, no one stops to say, “Wow! This floor looks great!”It doesn’t take much to become frustrated by all those little crumbs that seem to keep sticking to your feet. It’s just a necessity that needs to be done on a daily basis, multiple times a day.
As a mom, it is easy to become bogged down by those necessary jobs that seem to keep adding up and repeat themselves over and over again. They can become so monotonous and cause you to lose the joy of mothering. If there is anything I have learned over the seven short years I have been a mother, it is to turn my work into worship. It’s a challenge sorting through all of the responsibilities of the home and deciding which ones need your attention first. There are always things that can be done, and we can wear ourselves out trying to keep up. This is why we need Holy Spirit. He is our guide to help us to discern which things can be left undone, which things can wait until tomorrow and which things need to be done immediately.
It’s important that we take time daily to meet with the Lord so we are connected with Him and are able to make the right choices throughout the day concerning our home. But in addition to our daily meetings with Him, I believe it is important that we take our mundane, everyday responsibilities and turn them into places of worship. Turning on some of my favorite worship music is typically the way I get through that mound of laundry or pile of dishes. I have been known to listen to a podcast from one of my favorite preachers, but there is something special about just worshipping Jesus amidst the mundane. It’s amazing how I am immediately lifted from feeling overwhelmed to feeling overjoyed. In the middle of doing the unnoticed, necessary tasks, I am taken to a different place where my eyes are fixed on Jesus, and His eyes are on me. My focus shifts from an earthly task to a heavenly romance.
I would argue that there isn’t a mother in the world who wouldn’t exchange her daily responsibilities for perfect romance. Turning my work into worship redirects my focus to Jesus. The Bible says to work as we are working for the Lord (Col. 3:23). That scripture was written from the Apostle Paul to servants, but in context, it is written to all of us when we go about our daily responsibilities. I have found that as mothers we have a choice to make every day.
Are we going to allow the ordinary, mundane jobs to weigh us down, or will we allow them to lift us up?
I choose the romance. How about you?
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