Savoring Today

December 23, 2019 ~ I found this post unfinished in my blogger this morning, apparently written about four years ago. So much has changed in the four years since I authored these thoughts, yet so much is still the same. The principle rings just as true today as it did then: time is fleeting. My thoughts of four years ago are as much a reminder to myself today as I hope they will be for you. 


As I walked through my living room and dining room at 6:15 this morning, headed through to the kitchen where a hot, life-giving pot of coffee was waiting thanks to my wonderful husband, I cringed at the piles of "stuff" that littered the tables in the rooms.

And I do mean that to be plural - tables - with an "s."

The coffee table, the end table, the dining room table... they were all covered in piles.  Papers dumped from school bags, magazines abandoned mid-perusal, chord charts from last night's worship team rehearsal, hairbrushes and pony-tail holders, a baggie of grapes, folded stacks of laundry, dirty socks, a forgotten toy...

What a disaster.

I read an article last week that described habits of people who always have a clean house.

The author of that article didn't have any children living in her house.  (She said so herself.)   I'm wondering how different her article would have been if she lived with my four.

Because, while I do many of the things she suggested, I have four - five, if you include my hubby - other people in my house who contribute to it's state of chaos.  And this has been one of those weeks.  You know, the kind where you have more on your to-do list than you can possibly accomplish as just one person, and you wish you could either clone yourself or do the I Dream of Genie thing and have everything magically fall into place.

One of those weeks where you have to chose: Clean the bathroom or bake cookies with my daughter so she can take them to school for her birthday?

Scrub the kitchen floors or help my kiddo with his homework project.

Go home on my lunch hour and run laundry, or spend that hour with my friend and mentor, stretching my faith and learning how to more effectively minister in God's Kingdom.

Dust the living room or give my youngest his first piano lesson, that he's been asking about for weeks and weeks.

Make the bed or braid my daughter's hair.

Wash the sink full of pots and pans or sit next to my husband on the couch, listening to him spill all the details of his full-to-the brim day.

Having a tidy home is important, I know.  Everyone feels better when the space around them is picked up.  (See, Mom, I did listen...)  Even I have learned that I'm more at ease when my surroundings are orderly.

But moms (and dads!), cut yourselves some slack.  When life happens - and sometimes it does, in nice long stretches - look around at your chaos and give thanks for the things that make life so full that cleaning up gets pushed to the bottom of the priority list.  Enjoy the moments with your kids that matter; make those memories that you can never re-do.  Savor the richness of today, because tomorrow it will be gone.

Our house was a complete wreck this morning because yesterday was so full that we didn't even have time to pick things up before bed.  I could have grumbled about it this morning, but instead I'm going to choose to be grateful that yesterday I got to have lunch at school with my nine-year-old baby girl on her birthday, watch my oldest son march in his first high school homecoming parade, have dinner with all four of my kids and my husband (a rare thing on Wednesdays!), make two blankets with my daughter at our church outreach program, and worship with a great group of people while we rehearsed for Sunday morning.

Jesus said, "I have come to bring you abundant life." He has certainly given me an abundance of every part of life, and today I will be grateful for every ounce.