Saturday
Saturday. Day to do chores. Day to catch up. Day to recoup from the week. Day before Sunday's rest.
Waffles have been made, consumed, and the leftovers put in the freezer for Wednesday morning. I've swept and mopped the floors. The kids have done their individual chores. They've played their computer time. The house is clean, momentarily at least.
Livvy cleaned the Airbnb and got it ready for another guest to show up tonight. Turning our camp trailer into an Airbnb has been a fun new venture. I'm the hostess, Livvy is the housekeeper (with Ben stepping in to clean the toilet), and Tom and Jim are the maintenance men.
Then the boys helped pick up all the miscellaneous junk from the property and load it onto the trailer. Some of them are on the way to the land-fill with Dad. Ben is biking with Livvy to Dollar General to buy some candy for Hume Lake and a birthday present. Zac is taking a nap.
It feels so good to have one day when good work is happening all around. Productive busyness. Work that you can see a completion, a change. Clean floors, stocked freezer, picked up yard, etc. Visible work. It feels good.
Unfortunately, parenting is not as easy. Parenting doesn't have that feeling of accomplishment as a productive day of Saturday chores. It's a good thing, really. I would never know how much I lack, how much I struggle with sin, with faith, with trusting God, if it wasn't for parenting, or marriage for that matter. It's good to be brought low. It just doesn't feel good. Not like Saturday.
Parenting maybe is more like Monday. Monday everyday. Knowing that there is a week of work ahead. A week of showing up, putting in all you have, of pouring yourself out. There are certainly joys, incredible joys in the week, even on Monday. I love my kids. I love my job. This job of parenting...most of the time.
But it's only Monday. And honestly, I'm not sure how the week is going to play out. Will all this hard work, this pouring out of myself, culminate like a really productive Saturday? Will the visible result of my work (our labor of love) be good? Feel good?
There's no guarantee. I know there is hope. Hope that the weekend is coming. That Saturday will be bring all things together. And really, that Sunday is coming. The real day of rest. The day you can sit back in peace, knowing that God is good. He has a plan. A good plan. His way is good.
But...hope is hard to grasp on Monday. When the littles are needy and the bigs are bickering. When wisdom seems like something only to pray for, but never given. When I'm grasping to trust that God is in the midst of all this.
There are a lot of days in the week of parenting before Saturday. Before Sunday. I will press on. I will lean on Him more. I will persevere. I will embrace the week. I will take joy in all things. With His help. Clinging to hope. Working toward an accomplished Saturday.
Waffles have been made, consumed, and the leftovers put in the freezer for Wednesday morning. I've swept and mopped the floors. The kids have done their individual chores. They've played their computer time. The house is clean, momentarily at least.
Then the boys helped pick up all the miscellaneous junk from the property and load it onto the trailer. Some of them are on the way to the land-fill with Dad. Ben is biking with Livvy to Dollar General to buy some candy for Hume Lake and a birthday present. Zac is taking a nap.
It feels so good to have one day when good work is happening all around. Productive busyness. Work that you can see a completion, a change. Clean floors, stocked freezer, picked up yard, etc. Visible work. It feels good.
Unfortunately, parenting is not as easy. Parenting doesn't have that feeling of accomplishment as a productive day of Saturday chores. It's a good thing, really. I would never know how much I lack, how much I struggle with sin, with faith, with trusting God, if it wasn't for parenting, or marriage for that matter. It's good to be brought low. It just doesn't feel good. Not like Saturday.
Parenting maybe is more like Monday. Monday everyday. Knowing that there is a week of work ahead. A week of showing up, putting in all you have, of pouring yourself out. There are certainly joys, incredible joys in the week, even on Monday. I love my kids. I love my job. This job of parenting...most of the time.
But it's only Monday. And honestly, I'm not sure how the week is going to play out. Will all this hard work, this pouring out of myself, culminate like a really productive Saturday? Will the visible result of my work (our labor of love) be good? Feel good?
There's no guarantee. I know there is hope. Hope that the weekend is coming. That Saturday will be bring all things together. And really, that Sunday is coming. The real day of rest. The day you can sit back in peace, knowing that God is good. He has a plan. A good plan. His way is good.
But...hope is hard to grasp on Monday. When the littles are needy and the bigs are bickering. When wisdom seems like something only to pray for, but never given. When I'm grasping to trust that God is in the midst of all this.
There are a lot of days in the week of parenting before Saturday. Before Sunday. I will press on. I will lean on Him more. I will persevere. I will embrace the week. I will take joy in all things. With His help. Clinging to hope. Working toward an accomplished Saturday.
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