How Has Your Life Been Interrupted Lately?
She opened her book and read:
How has your life been interrupted lately?
No sooner had she read the question than she heard the pitter patter of little feet coming down the hallway. Through her bedroom door stumbled a groggy, two and half foot tall, sick child.
Just moments before he had been tucked into bed – belly full of nettles and catnip tea, chest rubbed with eucalyptus and lavender oil and garlic oil dripped down into his ears. He should be sound asleep inhaling the scents from the humidifier and being lulled to even deeper sleep by the hymns echoing through the iPod.
Asleep.
Sound asleep.
But here he stood. A sick child in the mother’s last trimester of pregnancy.
I’d say her life is one big interruption.
As a mom of a toddler and one growing in my womb, interruptions are a constant part of my day. It seems as though the one time I can steal away for a little peace, the Lord says,
“Nope. I need you to be my hands and feet right now. I need you to love my children. And I need you to die to self.”
What I think I need is time alone with the Lord – just five minutes, please! But His ways are not my ways.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” ~Isaiah 55:8-9
The sacrifices of a mother are many. Oftentimes we wonder if what we do matters, and more often than not we feel like a failure. We frequently lose our patience and wish to just go potty in peace. But these are the moments created and fashioned by God for not only His glory but for our good.
I confess, I want comfort and ease. I like when events make sense. I like routine and consistency. I like when my toddler goes to bed for the night and the house is quiet. I like when I get to go out for a date night with my husband. I like when my house is clean and tidy.
Laughably none of these things happen on a regular basis, but yet I cling … I desire … I wish upon a star.
However good these things are, God often calls me out of my box and my own ways and asks me to follow Him. In essence, He calls me to the extraordinary. He calls me to selfless love.
It’s a tall order, but God does not require that which he Himself does not do!
“When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, ‘It is finished,’ and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.'” ~John 19:30
Mommy, what are you doing?
Well Buddy, I’m studying God’s Word.
Whhhoooaaaaa!!!!
He climbs into bed, curls his arm around mine, tucks his thumb into his mouth and lies there as if there is no other place he’d rather be. He needs his mommy.
Daddy comes into the room and toddler boy says, “Daddy, can I read your Bible?”
What comforts are you holding on to right now? What can you let go in order to allow the Lord to work?
Jesus sacrificed his entire life, giving up his spirit … willingly … knowingly.
Can we do the same?
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Thank you SO much for this post! It’s a confirmation of exactly what God was speaking to my heart yesterday. I crave that routine and ease too, and regrettably too often look at my boys as intrusions to my day! Motherhood is a high calling and one that constantly drives us back to Him and his everyday grace! Have a great week!
“Motherhood is a high calling and one that constantly drives us back to Him and his everyday grace!” Very well said. Could not agree more!
Oh this was the thing that I took away from that study the most too – the day-to-day application to the every-day, every-moment interruptions of motherhood and how resentful I get because of them. Thanks for the reminder!
Beautiful. Simply beautiful. I am holding on to so much right now. My life is ALL about everyone else and I feel tired. I keep thinking “when do I get a second.” But really, I don’t deserve that second…and He will give me strength to get through this day. So, basically. Suck it up Nikki!
Sure, suck it up, but lean hard into grace too. Don’t be too hard on yourself! This past year has been one BIG, HUGE, ENORMOUS lesson in interruptions and grace (as you know). I love routine. I love consistency. I love checking things off a list. But it’s in the moments of chaos and mess when I lean hard into grace, take a big, deep breath, and choose to let it all go and live in the NOW that peace has overcome my spirit. I’ve also found those rare moments of “me time” when I least expect it. This is a hard season, one that will pass. So don’t just suck it up. Choose grace.
I am a mother too, but my children now (well half of them) have children of their own. I am a grandmother, yes.
You would think I had all the time in the world to do whatever I wanted to now, and I will admit I likely have some freedoms you moms with tiny tots do not have, but life gives interruptions at this stage as well. Twenty years ago on February 1, 1997, my husband, then age 44, had a major stroke. Our lives have been one interruption after another since that time. Therapies, doctor visits, specialist visits, more therapies and medical emergencies than I can count or remember…and not all his.
December 16, 2015, as I took a bag of trash to the car, praying with my sister-in-law multiple states away, I fell on black ice breaking my left wrist and pelvis, but not complete breaks, and though I had an ambulance ride to the hospital, x-rays, nothing was seen…six weeks later after an MRI, the breaks showed up, I was given a cast for my wrist and commended for already using a crutch when I absolutely had to get out of bed. Months of OT and PT later, I’m nearly back to ‘normal’.
Life has interruptions at every age. So at every age, God is calling us, whispering ‘be still and know that I am God’. We maybe cannot stop the world around us from spinning out of control, but we can let his peace in while we change diapers (and I had to change them for hubby too at various times of illness) make the beds, mop the floors, pick up the dirty clothes and shovel snow (hubby can’t shovel anymore) but we can be still inside, and hear what He has today for our hearts.
God bless as you practice being still. <3