Professional Poop Cleaner

Day 6

Reality Check:

…bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 1 Corinthians 13:7

Ponder this story: As she scrubbed fecal matter off the wall she thought, "How did I get myself into this mess?" This job was not what you'd call a glamorous job. In fact, it didn't even pay the bills- but it provided. If you would have asked Elizabeth what she would be doing in twenty years, cleaning up poop with a sauce stained shirt, hand feeding Sara, would not have been her answer. Today she had scrubbed the floor- twice, wiped several rear ends, and done four loads of laundry and that was just the beginning of the list. Why did she do these things, was scrubbing poop her dream job? I seriously doubt it, but she loved her _______. Fill in the blank. You could put children there, you could put a parent or grandparent or other relative, maybe a friend.

You probably couldn’t pay me to clean up fecal matter everyday (Although God has given some the ability to handle this kind of job.) But I wipe butts for free! Why? Because love endures all things. There are a lot of things we will sacrifice, a lot of things we will do, for someone we love. But sometimes I don't endure ALL things...

 Just the other day, when I started writing this blog series, I was having a difficult day. I had no patience for dealing with my kiddos, I lacked self-control, and I was losing it. When I say losing it, I mean losing it. I felt like a volcano must, right before it's about to explode and burn down a village. I say that lightly but that's really what happens when we forget about love. We can literally burn things down. We burn out hope, joy, fun, playfulness, learning, the sparkle in the eye...and that my friend is a horrible place to be. But I was there. As I snapped at one of my boys, I saw the sparkle leave...guess what replaced it? Fear.

 In a moment I burned out the sparkle, and in a moment I was crushed.

 That's not what I want to instill in my children or anyone else. I doubt that you do either.

 Why was it that I could not endure all things? What was different today? Not enough sleep?  Low blood sugar? Stress? Maybe.

 A few minutes later, my sister editor called. She was telling me about a typo on day 2 of this series. I read it, "did you start with God today..." Oops. I hadn't. I stopped what I was doing, I said a little prayer. I thanked my sister for the inadvertent reminder and I got my Bible out.

 You’re probably saying, "I have x amount of kids, I can't just stop the day and read my Bible." Or, "I have to get this x done before x happens."

 Trust me, I've been there. Here's what I'm learning to do. I stop and do it anyways. Now this particular day, I read with my kids. I grabbed my Bible; I grabbed the kids and sat them down. I opened it up and started reading. Stryder sat and listened the entire time. Zeke listened for about 1 1/2 minutes, Elisha cried the whole time.

 Was there some miraculous change in our day, were things suddenly going smoothly? Hardly.  Elisha cried the entire time we read; Zeke spilt his water and the list of chaos continued through the day.  But every time something came up, I had a little more patience to handle it, my spirit's whisper was a little louder in my ear, and I had the peace to remind myself to take a breath before I burned down my village.

 

Practice: Go back to day 1, where is that sticky note? Did you read the post, get excited and then fall back into old routines? God has to be priority! If he is not number 1 on your our to do lists, then it will be easy to forget, easy to say, “in a minute”, easy to say, “before I go to bed”, or, “I’m too tired.” Don’t let it be easy to make excuses, make Him your priority!

Family Activity: Make it your goal to read your Bible with (even if they’re young) your kids every day this week! In order to know true love (and to be able to teach it), you have to know the author…and the only way to do that is through relationship-prayer, His word and the Holy Spirit!