We live in a culture of convenience don't we? Certainly if something is more convenient, we might pay more for it. Who wants to skin those carrots when you can buy some that SOMEONE ELSE has already skinned and prepared. Ah.. the luxury! Just rinse and pop right into your mouth.
Look a little closer though. Those baby carrots cost twice as much more and you get less! It only takes a couple of minutes to skin them, so why not do a tiny bit of extra work so you can be a good steward of your money?
I am laughing at myself for using this example, because yes, I have on occasion bought the baby carrots. And of course I am not criticizing anyone for buying them. That would be absurd.
But it does present such a great teachable moment doesn't it? *grin*
I was having a conversation with a friend recently. The conversation was geared in the direction of how inconvenient parenting our kids can be. She basically said that sending them to school is the only break we get from them so,for goodness sakes, why in the world would you HOME-SCHOOL them? You are nuts, Kim! She then continued on and on about how inconvenient children are.
What about a missionary? As a friend once stated, no one questions the sacrifices that a missionary goes through to take the gospel to the lost. Most people don't even question if they can or cannot do it. God will help them because He called them to do it. But when it comes to motherhood, then our convenience is always considered. Is motherhood always easy? Did God call me to motherhood? Are my children my mission field? If He did give these little treasures to me to parent, does that not mean that He trusts me (calls me) to do the WORK it takes to teach them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord?
What about my own selfish desires?
If God called me to motherhood, then it's my job to be the mother He called me to be regardless of what I may or may not want. We are all so caught up in "me-ism". We are so worried about "ME" time, that we are missing out on the biggest joys of life.
Are we so worried about ourselves that we aren't willing to DIE to ourselves? Some of the most awesome moments in my parenting have come when I chose to put my own wishes aside and pray with, play with, read to, and teach my boys.
I don't know about anyone else, but I not only expect hardship but I hope that when it does come I will embrace each moment as teachable. Molding me and my family into what God calls us to be. I can do nothing else but obey His calling and embrace it regardless if it gets in the way of what I want for me.
What am I teaching my boys if instead of facing hardship head on, I run the other way?
Recently I was thinking that maybe I should "lay off" on being so open about my housekeeping difficulties. I have noticed that, for example, I might say things to whoever may be standing beside me at the time, "I just cannot keep up with this laundry!". I think I should maybe lay off being so open so that people won't think "well, if she can't handle that then she can't handle homeschooling".
Or if I say, "Wow, I am tired today", then for some reason people take that as an opening to say "well you chose that road when you chose to home-school".
But on the other hand if I pretend to be "miss perfect" then deep down I think I am being somewhat hypocritical. Yes, I am sure I do need to lay off telling about every struggle but, on the other hand, I am a REAL person with real struggles. And these real struggles may be hard, BUT should I allow them to keep me from pursuing God's calling on my life.
No, home-schooling won't be easy. But does it HAVE TO BE EASY for me to embrace it?
No one expects that missionary to just chuck his call to the mission field just because it will be hard? We have been so brainwashed in this culture to run from hard-ship that we are missing out on God's blessings. May I embrace God's call on my life... even the hard things. Perhaps one day I will be able to look back and see how God used it (hardship & trials) to mold our family's character into what God would have us to be.
4 comments:
It’s interesting that we always want to appear perfect before everyone else. None of us are perfect, so why do we expend so much energy trying to make everyone around us think we are? I think it’s a trick of the devil. He knows as long as he can get us focused on keeping up appearances then he can side-track us from learning the lessons that God would have us learn from the difficult circumstances that come our way. We look at all our imperfections and try to find ways to hide them from everyone else, instead of presenting them openly to God and allowing Him to do what we never can. No, I don’t think we need to go around telling everyone how imperfect we are; that’s not my point at all. But I do think if we spent more energy and time turning to God and allowing Him to teach us by relying on Him in our areas of imperfection instead of looking for ways to hide them from other people, we’d all be so much further up the road spiritually.
The same goes for always taking the easy route instead of learning to sacrifice our own comfort for the sake of others or learning to be more like Christ. Once again, we get so caught up in what’s most comfortable for us that we tend to resist anything and everything that even hints and feeling uncomfortable. As a result, we often fail to hear from God because we have been too busy resisting “pain” instead of submitting to what God can teach us through it if we would just let Him. Thankfully Christ wasn’t more worried about personal comfort than He was submitting to God’s will. Where would any of us be if He had been?
Well, didn’t mean to preach a sermon. Just thought you made some great points and wanted to add my own two-cents worth…though I would probably have been better off just saying “way to go” and not trying to add my own dialogue. However, since I’m too tired to hit delete at this point, I’ll just let this stand and hope it makes sense to someone. :-)
Steve,
I am so glad you didn't hit delete. THANK YOU!
You are so right! I told Aunt Betty one day that maybe she shouldn't work so hard to make her house look perfect. That if maybe she would let some see it not so perfect, that it would give us moms a break from stressing over the fact that ours isn't perfect! Moms are so bad at comparing themselves to others and basing their selfworth on how they measure up.
Love ya girl! Lisa
I agree with you and Steve. I am guilty of trying to reason myself out of witnessing to people because I'm afraid I'll offend them. It's hard not to try to stay as "comfortable" as possible. The best thing to do in these "uncomfortable" situations is let God take control, and let Him use us.
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