Mmmm…Monday!

Mondays, especially sunny Mondays, give me motivation. I love feeling like I rested on Sunday and have the opportunity of a fresh start to making 7 days into a wonderful week.

I’ve started laundry, washed dishes, taken Owen to school, took a walk, played with the boys, read blogs, read some other stuff, read my Bible and wrote in my journal. I did some hand-washing, dropped off some dry-cleaning and made lunch. I sent some e-mails, harassed a few people, made a date with a friend to see a blogger we admire who’s doing a cookbook signing in Nashville in December and now I’m going to write in my blog. I can make a little, sound like a lot, just cause it makes me feel good about myself and my Monday.

This motivation has me thinking about a lot of stuff. Future kinds of stuff and asking myself the age old question…”what am I going to do with myself?”

I have dreams for a little tiny business that has only made one sale. I would like to see that little business make a profit and be a blessing to children in Haiti as well as young creative women in Tennessee.

I have dreams of taking a trip or two with my husband and seeing some places we’ve never seen before.

I have dreams of doing a few little things to encourage a friend in a big way.

I have dreams of being a cleaning goddess and championing the cause of “clean floors for Mother’s of Toddlers.”

That last one has really taken up a lot of my Motivated Monday Mind. I am not a clean freak by any stretch of the imagination. I cringe a bit when people come to my house and I haven’t had the time to mop, or when I open my windows and see the crud (which in some sills includes a dead bug or two) that has collected over time and needs to be cleaned out by someone (who?). I don’t wash my kids sheets as much as I should and I am thankful for the fact that my carpet doesn’t show dirt easily because I certainly don’t vacuum as much as I should. I leave dirty dishes on the counter overnight and I don’t make my bed every day. I am someone who feels more at peace in a clean house, but doesn’t have the wherewithal to stick with a plan to keep it that way. I have cobwebs in corners and dust on the TV (and all surrounding furniture), dust on the top of the fridge and dust in varying layers on chandeliers and other light fixtures around the house. I have hair on my bathroom floor, soap scum on my shower door and mysterious black spots (no, it’s not mold) in my bathtub that won’t wash away without a strong cleaner and a real elbow workout. These are all challenges that make me feel a bit like a failure in the quest to become a cleaning maven. There are others I assure you, not the least of which is my inability to control clutter. I can hide it, but have yet to control it.

However…and that’s a big HOWEVER…I feel a desire to learn. Not because I’m unsatisfied or feel pressure to be something I’m not. I don’t. I don’t even feel guilty about those things I listed, a little too defined at times maybe, but not shame or guilt. This “however” comes from a couple of different sources. One, is that I am planning another “Total Woman Retreat” for my Sunday school class women in the spring and the subject of choice this year is “A Clean House.” And two, because I sort of want to pioneer this topic from a perspective other than “I love cleaning…here’s how you can love it too.” I’m thinking if a “content with my corners” mom of toddlers can find a handle on this, then maybe I could give it away without any pressure and without any guilt. I don’t mean a handle on a super clean house, but a handle on what’s appropriate, priorities in balancing cleaning and living…the difference in housework and homework so to speak, the advantages to the whole family and the individual when the house is clean and the advantages to your own sanity when you know you’re cleaning for those you love instead of for the mold you’re supposed to fit into. That’s a pretty big commitment for someone like me.

Then I read this…

“Man that is in honor, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish.” Psalm 49:20

Mary Mary Commentary: I’ve had that underlined in my Bible for a long time. I know it to mean that a person who has earned a certain amount of respect and power on earth but has no understanding of what it means to live and especially to live for others, is going to die with nothing, just as an animal dies. It makes me think of when my dad’s calf died from eating a leaf that poisoned her. She was buried somewhere in the midst of nothing. There is no marker, no headstone, no remembrance to speak of…she was just a beast that never contributed…she fed off others’ kindness and responsibility and then died. Like a beast that perishes, there is no legacy for those who take and hoard, only for those who give.

Today I saw something different in those words. In light of my previous pondering, I saw that I am someone who is in honor simply because I am the child of a God without limits. I am adopted into the inheritance of the saints and given the rights and privileges of spiritual royalty. I have access to promises and the favor to follow principles that fit my spiritual mold and cause me to gain success by my commitment to righteousness. If I have this honor, but no understanding of it, I too am like the beasts that perish. I swallowed those words hard this morning. Do I live in the honor I am blessed with…do I truly understand, not just the rights, but the responsibility of kinship with Christ? If I do…taking on a big HOWEVER and learning a teachable form of house cleaning is a challenge that I can undertake.

One last thought to make this more clear, go look at these pictures: Speckled Bird Art

Our friends (the family in the photos) are in India right now ready to pick up their adopted daughter. The paperwork has been taken care of, the passports, the letters of recommendation, the tickets…the red tape that would not end is all in hand…yet for Dorothy, their adoptive daughter, there is no understanding of her transformation from orphan to daughter until they go and get her. She will be legally theirs. They have waited since before she was ever conceived to hold her and make her a part of their family, they have done all that it takes, but if they did not bring her home…there would be no change in her life. She has the honor of becoming a child of a great couple, the sister to some great kids, but without understanding…she perishes in a country that has no hope for little girls in her situation.

Like Dorothy, we are in a hopeless situation without God’s grace. Even with the acceptance of His gift of salvation though, we could perish unchanged. Until we come home and live (gain understanding) in the rights and the responsibilities of that adopted kinship we will not have His life in us.

In my journal this morning I wrote: “Do we know who we are, what we have and who loves us? If we do not live in the honor and privilege of God’s inheritance we perish alive.”