As Much As I Like To Be Organized...

I'm reading yet another book.  I'm am in a season where I just can't get enough!  Don't worry, these seasons never last long, but I try to take advantage of the times I actually get the urge to pick up a book.
(My mom is probably sitting at her computer with her jaw wide open in shock!)

This book is the follow-up to a book I read last year called "Loving The Little Years" by Rachel Jankovic.

Talk about step-on-you r-toes honesty and spirit-lead conviction!  The basis is the foundation of loving and sacrificing.  When you feel at the end of your patience, your creativity, yourself, think of ways to invest in others.  Because "when we imitate Christ, we want to give what costs us much, and we want to give it freely".

Anyway, I wanted to highlight just a few of my favorite things so far.  (I'm only on Chapter 3:)

1 - "Being a mother changes your role in the world...There is a difference between giving something and having it taken from you.  If you still count the things that you lost with resentment, then you did not give them.  You need to let go of those things that you no longer have.  Lay them down.  If you find yourself in bed at night tallying what has been lost to you, then you need to let go of that list.  Lay them down.  Give them freely.  Don't count them as stolen."

2 - "The love of Christ is not the reason that we don't have to do things.  It is the reason we get to do things freely."  This is speaking of the parable of the talents in Matthew 25.  "If your Master gave you gold, you should not be sitting on it."

3 - On making sacrifices and provisions for your family: "We want to know, within the next fifteen minutes, that everyone saw what we sacrificed, acknowledged it gratefully, thanked us profusely, reflected on it quietly, and came up with a way to repay us. But God thinks in much, much bigger story lines."  We need to look to Christ for our fulfillment and satisfaction and give freely, just as He did.  "We should be doing it so freely that we don't remember it."

4 - "When you are a mother and a homemaker, you are your own boss.  The days are what you make of them.  The tasks that need to get done are put on a list at your discretion.  This means that you must be leadership material.  At the same time, what you get done is up to you, too...making you a hardworking employee...Making a list that you cannot accomplish does not make you a better housewife, it makes you a bad leader.  Snarking at yourself just makes you a bad leader who is also mean."

Along these same lines (I wish I could just copy this whole chapter!) she talks about how she would get irritable with her kids when trying to get through her list, but "It doesn't matter what is on the table when the people around it aren't at peace.  It doesn't matter how clean the house is when bitterness is growing in the hearts of all your children...I needed to still want clean bathrooms, but not as much as I wanted peace at home."

OUCH!

I'm learning that my to-do lists are not bad, and not accomplishing everything on them doesn't make me a lazy or unfit mom.  The heart in which I accomplish them is the key.  I want organized closets, but not as much as kids that have been shown and guided to share and respect their toys/belongings.  I want healthy, balanced meals, but not more than healthy, balanced relationships between the Colony.  I need to prioritize my priority list:)