Joy and Grace in the Daily Mundane Life

    Time for confession and repentance. I don't always like being a stay-at-home mom and the keeper of the home. I kind of despise the fact that I have to load the dishwasher EVERYDAY. It gets on my nerves that the day after I get all of the laundry folded and put away, there is another basket of clothes waiting to be washed. I get really angry at the fact that within 30 minutes of me cleaning up the living room it is messy again. I have stopped trying to organize the playroom, because within 5 minutes all the toys are thrown around the room. In those moments, I am not a pleasant person and it is hard for me to see the joy or God's grace in my life.
     Before I continue, let me be clear that I LOVE being a wife and mom and I am truly thankful for the opportunity to be able to be home with my kids. I am looking forward to the opportunity to begin homeschooling next year and being the one who is instructing my children. I would not trade my life, even on the bad days, for anything. This post is a confession that I allow the mundane and monotony of being a homemaker rob me of my joy and blind me to God's many graces.
     For example, last night as I was getting ready to go to bed I walked through the kitchen and realized that I had not loaded the dishwasher yet, so the sink was overflowing. I had known all afternoon that I needed to load the dishwasher, but I had just done it the day before and I kept putting it off. I was tired of the monotony and I procrastinated to the point that I had to stay up an extra 20 minutes to unload and reload the dishwasher. To put it nicely, my thoughts and actions in those 20 minutes were not glorifying. As I laid down to prepare for sleep all I could think about was how much I hate doing the dishes everyday. I allowed my disdain for the mundane to keep me from remembering all the good things that happened that day.
      Yesterday was actually a break from the monotony of my day-to-day life. I did not have to nanny yesterday, so I got an entire day with just my daughter. We were able to go to the zoo with a couple of friends and that was wonderful. I was reminded yesterday of how precious is the gift of friendship. My daughter and I were able to eat lunch with my husband at work and then we got to come home and nap together on the couch for 30 minutes. There were many moments of joy yesterday, but I could not recall any of them because I was wallowing in my sin of anger and resentment at having to do the same task yet again.
      This morning I decided to make a change. I am realizing that my attitude is trickling down to my children. My kids have a hard time identifying the good things that happen each day and I think that has to do with my lack of modeling it. I know that if I am going to change my heart to focus more on joy and God's grace, I am going to need the power of the Spirit working in my heart. To be able to speak truth into my heart, I must first know the truth, so I spent some time in the Word this morning searching for verses about joy. Here is a list of what I found.

      Ecclesiastes 9:7 - "Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do."

     Romans 15:13 - "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope."

    Isaiah 12:5-6 - "Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously; let this be made known in all the earth. Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel."

    Psalm 16:9, 11 - "Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure...You make known to me the path of life; in your presences there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore."

    1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 - "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."

    Psalm 118:24 - "This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."

    As I meditate on these words of truth I am convicted to be more intentional about identifying the moments of joy and evidences of God's graces in my day-to-day life. This morning I decided to make a change in the attitudes of my family. As the kids and I were driving to school, I told them that we were going to start taking time each night during our family devotion and prayer time to share a moment of joy and an evidence of God's grace from the day. I took time to talk to the kids about the importance of focusing on joy and God's grace so that we don't became angry and frustrated. I then gave them examples from the past couple of days of God's grace and moments of joy.
     To end this post I want to share a few moments of joy from just this morning:

• First thing this morning Sophia came into my bathroom and asked me if the baby I nanny for was still sick, when I told her no, she brushed her hand across her forehead and said, "shew". Precious
• In the car, Sophia said, "stupid is a bad word" (which in our family it is). Eli was about to tattle on her, when I asked her, "if it is a bad word, why did you say it?" Sophia paused for a few seconds and then with the cutest look on her face she said, "no, no, no, I didn't..." It was just so cute that I had to smile.
• Frozen is a current favorite thing in our house and we listen to the soundtrack EVERY TIME we get in the car and this morning my 3 year old was singing "Let It Go" at the top of her lungs-adorable
• My son offered to help his sister put her cup in the cup holder without being asked
• My son gave me the biggest kiss before walking into school and then looked back at me before going in the door
• I get to have lunch with my husband again today
• Tonight I get to spend time in community with some pretty awesome couples

     I have so much joy in my life and God's grace is so evident that it is time to stop allowing the mundane and monotonous rob me of experiencing the life God has blessed me with to the fullest.