Nov. 11, 2006
How Much Is Enough?
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Boys and girls are so different. I
don't have any little girls but I once was a little girl. I know
that God wanted to grow me when He decided to bless me with a house
full of boys. I love them to pieces but....I just don't
understand them sometimes. These children mess up the house
faster than I can clean it. Of course, we all lower our standards
of cleanliness once the children come along - in favor of time with
them. Children are only little once...and the house can
wait. So, in my effort to live comfortably in my own home without spending countless hours cleaning it day after day, I've decided that -- we have more than we need. We aren't ones to hoard things -- if we have it and you need it - it's yours. We move a lot so we have frequent opportunities to purge what isn't necessary. But... That isn't what I'm talking about. We have a big house and I'm only one woman. Yes, the kids have chores, but...see paragraph one...it doesn't stay picked up for long! What I'm talking about really goes back to simplicity -- my apparent theme for the last few years. Lately I'm going through every corner of my home asking myself one simple question - "How much is enough". How many towels do we really need? How many dishes do we really need? How many toys do we need? How much is enough? We give things away a lot, to charities, we don't hang onto things unnecessarily...but, when it comes down to basic household items - how often do we give it thought? We received umpteen towels for our wedding 14 years ago...and those are now the ones that are in the boys' linen closet. Well, in the linen closet for short periods of time before they are on the bathroom floor! So, a few weeks ago I had this epiphany....How many towels do they really need? I realized that if I don't want to wash loads of towels every week...why not remove the source all together. So, I bagged up all but 4 towels and left them in the closet. Why didn't I think of this before? Same with dishes...it seems the sink is full before the dishwasher ever finishes the previous load of dishes. Again I ask..."How much is enough?" How many cups do we need, plates, bowls?? So, I packed up most of our every day dishes. Maybe God didn't enlighten me until now because He wanted to teach me something. Maybe I needed to learn my limitations or to realize that my ideal was higher than is possible for a homeschooling family. The hours simply are few, but the demands are abundant. You al ways have to give up something in order to gain something else. I don't believe in "having it all". Everything cost you something else. I don't even want it all. What I want is to make sure that I am making the best choices for the time that I do have. I'd rather live with less (albeit enough), than to spend precious hours of my children's adolescence doing the mundane tasks of routine. What I want is to be able to look back and have few regrets. I don't decieve myself - I know that there will be, and already are some, regrets. But, I will have failed them as mother if I don't make every effort to make those regrets as scant as possible. And I will have failed myself because there is nothing on earth that can replace knowing the hearts of your children. My compromise isn't really a compromise - it's more of a fresh beginning. It's God gift of sight for that next step. All I have to do is follow the next step; I don't need to see the whole path...as long as He gives me light for the next step then - it's all good. We don't need a gaggle of miscellaneous "stuff", however useful it may be. We need to let go of that which takes our time and focus off of what is most important and can't be replaced. Towels? They'll make more....if I ever need more. |