Grace, our 22 month old, always asks, "What making, Mama?" What a great question. I've started using her question to hold me accountable to be "making" something at all times. It's easy to become distracted by so many things and forget that I've made a conscious choice to be a full-time mother to my children. Those days when I'm busy being distracted or unmotivated are the days when the kids are cranky and disobedient. They can see what my level of committment is and respond accordingly.
The days are short. Time is flying by and my kids will be out of the house longer than they were in it and one day my actions will be tested by fire - will they withstand the heat, or burn with the chaff? Thomas a Kempis wrote,
"Learn to obey, O dust! Learn to humble thyself, O earth and clay, and to bow thyself beneath the feet of all. Learn to crush thy passions, and to yield thyself in all subjection."
Can I? Dare I give all my desires for leisure time away so that I can "lay down my life" for my children? Can I humble myself and accept the head-shaking and finger-pointing when I tell someone I don't have a hobby because I've given it up for the greater good of raising my children?
But most importantly, can I put aside the pride I might feel about laying down my own desires for my children's needs and be a true instrument of God? The November 7th entry from my God Calling book slapped me right between the eyes...
"Dwelling with Me, desiring only My Will and to do My work, My Spirit cannot fail to pass through the channel of your life into the lives of others.
Many think it is humility to say they do little, and are of little value to My world. To think that is pride.
What if the pipe were to say, "I do so little, I wish I could be more use." The reply would be "It is not you, but the water that passes through you, that saves and blesses. All you have to do is to see there is nothing to block the way so that the water cannot flow through."
The only block there can be in your channel is self. Keep that out, and know that My Spirit is flowing through. Therefore all must be the better for coming in contact with both of you, because you are channels. See this, and you will think it natural to know they are being helped, not by you, but by My Spirit flowing through you as a channel."
