Jesus is Enough! - What are you looking at?

Sep. 13, 2007

What are you looking at?

Ever feel like there is something wrong with your and your family because of all the clutter and craziness going on? What woman hasn't? I love magazines like Country Living, Country Home, Victoria, and Martha Stewart Living because of the beautiful, cozy homes they often feature. How I would love to have a cute little romantic country home decorated in the style I've seen so many times in these magazine! But one thing I've had to learn is not letting those "perfect" homes get me down & discouraged at my home, which will never be featured in such magazines, for ours is a very lived-in home!

Don't get me wrong, I try to keep it a neat, peaceful place, but it takes so much energy! And I get so tired! I sweep five times a day (both inside and out), wash dishes and wipe down kitchen counters numerous times, and wash and fold mounds of laundry that never seems to get caught up. No exaggeration. I do have the kids' help in keeping the house in decent order, but then they are the reason it looks like a tornado crashed through! As hard as I try to keep a livable home for us, the bathrooms don't always get cleaned as often as they should, and I try not to venture into the kids' bedrooms unless it is just absolutely unavoidable!

This in addition to homeschooling five (well, four, since Elizabeth graduated) precious souls, trying to maintain a marriage to a man who works extremely long days, and trying, but often failing, to get to bed early enough to get up before everyone else so I can spend some quiet time with the Lord (and with myself!).    Much to my dismay, I've learned that life just doesn't always work out like I plan! But that doesn't mean it can't work for my good. If the floors don't get swept, but I've been able to spend time "tying apron strings" to my kids' hearts, then it's been quite a successful day. If hubby doesn't have clean t-shirts and I don't have a clean skirt to wear, but I've given my ear to listen to my chatty 13-year-old and 18-year-olds, I've accomplished quite a lot. If the sink is full of bowls with dried-on oatmeal from breakfast, but I've take the time to teach my 14-year-old how to embroider a pillowcase to give a friend for her birthday, then a failure I am not! If we can't sit on the couch because of piles of clean laundry needing to be folded and put away, but I've talked with my boys about spiritual matters so that they can be godly young men, then I have a reward far greater than drawers full of laundry.

Time, once spent, can never be gotten back. By the grace of God, every day that we live we are given time to spend molding, shaping, and nurturing the fruit He has given us. Though I am not discounting the importance of keeping our homes as we are called to do by the Lord, in the end the relationships we have with our husbands and children are of far greater consequence than sparkling homes. I believe that women who are committed to the Lord, their families, and their homes can have clean, peaceful, harmonious homes, as well as good relationships with those within their homes. It just means that we must prioritize all those things on our plates. But what is our priority as keepers of homes and bearers of children?

1 Corinthians 14:40 says "Let all things be done decently and in order." Though the context of that verse has to do with church services, I do believe that it can have an application in our live as well. This verse simply means that all we do should be done well, and with honor, integrity, and comeliness. In other words, do all to bring beauty to the home, soundness in your children, and esteem to the Lord.  However, what I want to concentrate on more is honoring the Lord.

If you think about it, everything we do in our lives is done to give or bring honor someone or something. Often that person we are striving to bring honor to is "self" because we are afraid of what others think about us. Sometimes we set unattainable expectations for ourselves for that very reason and end up feeling like failures. At other times, we take on the standards and expectations of the world because we are afraid to be different.   We're also afraid that we'll be failures in the world's eye because we don't live like it does. But Proverbs 3:9 & 10 tells us to "honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine." If our homes are not necessarily spotless and clutter-free (and magazine-quality) and decorated in a beautiful, stylish way, but the Lord is given a place of honor, then we are not losers! If we educate our children in ways that are a little out-of-the norm, but they grow to be young men and women who love and serve the Lord, then we are not failures! God says He will bless us when we honor Him with our substance (might, strength, ability, goods [homes and possessions]) and with the firstfruits of our increase (the children borne of our marriages)! In fact, we'll be blessed to overflowing!

Too often I live in a world heavy with discouragement because I have failed to live up to my own expectations, instead of living to honor the Lord. I am learning that I need to change my goals. Instead of achieving a home worthy of being featured in a magazine, I need a home worthy of Lord. A place where His love, mercy, grace, long-suffering, and loving-kindness shines through.

Maybe you have set unrealistic expectations for yourself and you may be living with feelings of discouragement. Or it could be that you've taken on the expectations and standards of the world and feel like a failure because you have not been able to measure up.

In Romans 12:1, God calls us near and invites us in to "present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." There is the beginning of a way out of our dilemma right there!

God is asking each and every Christian mother to consecrate and surrender herself to Him. Though the Lord says that it is not an extreme or excessive request on His part, it does require that we give up something, as a sacrifice always does. And why are we asked to give our very lives over to Him? 1 Corinthians 6:20 tells us that "ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s." He purchased us and He has the right to ask us to serve Him. 1 Peter 1:18 & 19 remind us that "ye were not redeemed with corruptible things . . . but with the precious blood of Christ." God sent the most valuable thing He could to ransom us from sin and death! His son Jesus, who spilled His blood to set us free from our bondage. We who have trusted in Christ's sacrifice are asked in return to make sacrifices as well: a committed life in service to Him; giving up the lusts of the flesh by walking in the Spirit (Galatians 5); glorifying Him with our bodies & spirits, which belong to Him because He ransomed us from a dead life. 1 Corinthians 7:23 admonishes us to "be not ye the servants of men" because we have been bought at a great cost. The previous verse says that though we've been set free, we are Christ's servant. Life in precious, and since Christ gave His precious life's blood for us, it is not unreasonable on God's part to ask us to give our lives over to Him.

But what about that pesky habit of ours to try to live up the world's standards? In verse two of Romans 12, the Lord tells us to "not be conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." This verse reminds me of the Play-doh and Silly Putty my kids loved to play with as kids. Actually, one of my girls still loves modeling clays and such. It's so much fun for her to put the clay or dough in a mold to shape it into pretend fruits, veggies, or animals. You know, the very meaning of conform is to be similar or identical; obedient or compliant. When my daughter plays with clay, she is working with a substance that conforms to whatever mold or cookie cutter she happens to be working with. In like fashion, we are to be compliant & obedient, with the Lord as our mold. We should strive to have characteristics common to the Lord, not to this world. Our lives, actions, and desires are to closely resemble our Saviour, not patterned after the world's standards.

To be obedient is to comply to the will of another. Obviously, this is often easier said than done. If we are having trouble with conforming to the Lord, He says that we can be changed (transformed) by renovating our feelings, our will, and our way of thinking! They all need to be restored to a better way by being cleaned, repaired, and rebuilt! We need a spiritual makeover!

I've never been to a day spa, though my family did buy a gift certificate for me for Mother's Day this year. The little 'menu' that came with the card that describes all of the services is very overwhelming! I don't have enough on the certificate to do more than one or two things, so I've put off having to make a choice. I've considered a pedicure, a hot stone massage, and maybe the foot & leg treatment. Wouldn't it be really fantastic to go in to one of those places and get "the works"? Imagine getting a massage, a facial, a body treatment, your nails done, and your hair fixed all at once! How invigorating that would be! I would feel so renewed! Unfortunate, these things don't last. Hair grows, nail polish wears off, and the skin on our face requires constant care. Time and time again we must return to the spa to maintain our make-over.

Likewise, we must continually renew our hearts and minds to stay conformed to the Lord. Even the Psalmist pleaded for the Lord to "renew a right spirit within me." Keeping a right heart, spirit, and mind is done by constant contact with Him and living a separated life through prayer (1 Thessalonians 5:17); reading the Word (2 Timothy 3:16, 17; Acts 4:29); wearing your armor (Ephesians 6); living by the Word (James 1:23-25); bringing your thoughts under the control of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5); thinking on the right things (Philippians 4:8); setting your affections on the right things (Colossians 3:1-3); crucifying fleshly affections and lusts (Galatians 5:24); praising Him and rejoicing at all times (Psalm 34;1; Philippians 4:6, 7); being thankful in all things (Ephesians 5:20; 1 Thessalonians 5:18); doing all as unto the Lord, not man (Colossians 3:23); and being obedient to the Spirit (Galatians 5; 1 Thessalonians 5:19).

As you can see, the Bible is full of admonitions and examples for living a victorious life full of peace! Though this life is not easy, God does not want us to live in defeat, fear, and turmoil. Isaiah 26:3 says that He will "keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee." When the Lord is no longer our confidence and hope, that is when we have lost our protection and will begin to rest in ourselves and lean on the world for answers. This is the time when we are most likely to conform ourselves and our thinking to the world's standards instead of the Lord's.

Moms often get tired, frustrated, and exhausted! How can I go on any longer?, you ask yourself. If you do, you think you just might lose your mind! You don't want to see another dirty dish, change another stinky diaper, fold socks that seem to have lost their mates, or sweep Cheerios off the floor. Add homeschooling into the equation and you feel as if you'll pull out those graying hairs if you have to do one more Chemistry experiment, diagram one more sentence, or work out any more Algebra problems. Don't even mention driving to even one more piano lesson, choir rehearsal, or 4-H meeting! But there is hope and strength for you if this is how you feel! Isaiah 40:31 tells us that those who stay in a place of expectation watching for the Lord will "renew their strength" and will "run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." I believe what we are being told here is that when God is our expectation (not the world, not standards we have set up for ourselves), then we will be able to do what we have to do and not become exhausted and tired. Fatigue, tiredness, and exhaustion happen when we wonder outside the will of God. Peace, rest, and strength come when we trust Him and make Him our expectation.

That word expectation has its origins in Latin. Literally, it means to look at (ex- + spectare). The Psalmist said "mine eyes are ever toward the LORD" (Psalm 25:15). In Psalms 121, he says "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber." Again, in Psalm 141 we read how "mine eyes are unto thee, O GOD the Lord: in thee is my trust; leave not my soul destitute." It seems to me that these eyes that look upon the Lord are spiritual in nature. And when we turn spiritual eyes on the Lord, we are showing Him that we trust Him to help us, to keep us on the right path with a steady step, and that He will not leave us lacking in what we need.

As I come to a close, you may be wondering how in the word you can keep a right way of thinking in the midst of all that you have been given to do. Over the years I have often had those same thoughts. But the Lord always brings one particular verse to my mind: Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established (Proverbs 16:3). With all my heart, I believe that this is the only way we can tackle the craziness that comes with being a homeschooling mother. We must roll them over to Him and trust Him to bring quietness and orderliness to our thoughts and plans, There is so very much to remember, so very much to do, and so very many relationships to work on. It is terribly easy to become overwhelmed with the amount the people, activities, and things to keep up with in our lives that we often shut down. So much so that I am surprised that more homeschool moms don't go on strike! But, thankfully, it does not have to be that way. Proverbs 21:2 says that "every way of a man is right in his own eyes". Whether that way is right or not can be debated, but if we are to be successful in our calling and in the work given us, it all has to be committed to Him.

Live for Him.

In Christ,

Julia

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Sep. 29, 2007 - Amen sis :-)

Posted by OldPathsMom