ezra 5
I was talking to my sweet sister, Annie over at Be Small Studios (she is super awesome), about motherhood and life, laundry and my dog who keeps getting himself so worked up about anything that moves outside that he loses control of his bowels, everywhere several times a day, issues our kids face and how sometimes it's just a lot. We decided that if motherhood had a tagline, it might be, "But wait, there's more!"
There's so much good stuff about being a mom. We love our kids fiercely, they make us laugh and cry, they give our hearts that full feeling when we watch them sleep, they renew our wonder at the moon and stars, they confide in us, they amaze us...but wait, there's more! They play in toilets and put the weirdest stuff in their mouths, they blow out diapers, they can stay awake for a really long time, they throw things and hit their brother, they don't like to share, they tell you about assignments due tomorrow...but wait, there's more! I think we need t-shirts!
Chapter 5 of Ezra, is a, "but wait, there's more," chapter. God once again stirs up the hearts of his people so that they would begin work on the temple again. And at that same time, the enemies of the Israelites show up. I love the way that Matthew Henry sums up what happened. He says that the Spirit "warmed its cool-hearted friends and excited them to build" and "cooled it's hot-headed enemies, and brought them better tempers." Yet another letter is written to yet another king, this time however, the Israelites continue to build while they wait for King Darius' reply.
I think I can imagine how they felt. Can't you? It's the feeling I get when, even if things are going well, I know I'm just one stomach virus away from utter chaos. That even if I have great systems in place and even if I am consistently following through on them, it will only take one wound up twelve pound barking dog to throw everything off balance. It's the utter terror of knowing that truly, I have no control over most of the choices my kids will make. I can teach them, model for them, love them, speak into them, encourage them, give them boundaries for a fraction of their lives, but I can't force them to make good choices.
It's heavy, isn't it? But this is the hope that I have. God is faithful. He always has a plan and He always completes it. Always. So I can stress and worry and try to control it all or I can trust what He is doing.
Tip: Sometimes our homes can feel overwhelming. When we look at all the things that need to happen-the laundry, the dishes, the homework, the meals, the floors, the bathrooms (if you have little boys, holla). When I get to this point, I prefer to handle it by eating chocolate. Unfortunately it's a fairly ineffective technique. It is much more effective when I can look for ways to make incremental progress. I tend to look at everything and operate in a pass/fail mentality. Either I get it all done or I don't. But when I adjust my goals, everything is more doable. So, for example, when I get behind on laundry, I can work myself into a panic, because laundry is never finished, or I can commit to doing something daily that can actually be accomplished. If I normally need to do one load of laundry a day, but for whatever reason I've fallen behind, I can do two loads a day. That's doable. Maybe I have to do two loads per day for a whole week, but at the end of that week, the laundry will be caught up and I can go back to one load per day.
Tool: Kids and chores. There's a hard balance to strike between teaching and encouraging your kids and actually getting stuff done. While it's important to take time to teach our kids to do chores and we always want to encourage their efforts. When you need to make some progress, and still want to involve your kids, it's a great idea to have them do some "extra" chores. These are things that are either small or things that you might not do every time you clean but would be helpful if done at all. Here's a list of things your kids can do while you get stuff done!
