Evidence of Life

 

*Last summer, while I was learning how to make a blog post, this was the very first "practice post" I put together (hence the bad blurry photos). I never shared it with anyone.  Today my house looks like a train wreck, so I thought I'd post this "publicly" as a reminder to myself about dealing with the messes of life and motherhood. Just maybe someone else with a mess today could use this gentle reminder, too : )


There was a time when the messes of family life used to really get on my nerves. On a regular basis. Let me stop and apologize (sorry Tess) to my oldest daughter who undoubtedly took the brunt of my crankiness in this area. I am a mother of four children ranging in age from 21 to 5, and I would just like to say, regardless of the “that’s not fair!” factor, in my experience we will NOT be the same mother with our later children that we were with our first. Life experience changes us, education informs our views and, hopefully, yielding to the Holy Spirit softens and molds us and sometimes gives us new eyes. Things that used to irritate suddenly give us a quiet pleasure. 

 I had one of those moments today, when I walked into my bedroom to find my bed all rumpled and full of stuffed animals. My 8 year old wasn’t feeling well and she had climbed into my bed with her “friends” to get comfy and rest while listening to an audio book.
There was a time when things like this might have bugged me. After all, I did just make my bed a short time before! But today I can smile at this little scene knowing that the simple comfort of my bed and her friends and a good story helped her feel better. My “older mom” perspective (most of the time-sometimes I can still get cranky!) tells me that these displays of seeming disarray are the evidence of life in a home.

 

 My daughter's perpetual “spread” of artwork, the half-finished game awaiting the next round at the table, the seemingly endless dirty dishes and the sticky mess after making and eating lots of those homemade donuts. These are the things that represent life in a home! I am not at all suggesting that clean-up isn’t important at some point. I am suggesting, though, that the next time we walk in to a mess that our little darlings have created that we could perhaps pause the tendency to immediately feel grouchy. To try and see it through different eyes-for what it really is. Evidence of learning, evidence of creating and imagination, evidence of the blessing of good food and comfort and fun. The evidence of LIFE! I wouldn’t want it any other way.