A Story

The alarm rang.
She opened her eyes and sighed. Morning already.

She got up and pulled her robe around her as her husband turned the alarm off and went to the bathroom to get dressed for work. He was a fast dresser so she only had a few minutes to prepare his lunch. Not that it was and elaborate thing to do, thankfully. His tastes were as simple as hers. A quick salami sandwich, apple, bag of chips, and can of coke were added to the lunch box waiting on the counter.

He came out of the bedroom, gave her a quick kiss, and left for his day of work.

She now went to the bathroom to get dressed herself. If she waited, she probably wouldn't get another chance the rest of the day.

A quick neatening of the bathroom, make the bed, throw a load of laundry in the washer, and she settled down to do her private devotions. By now it was 6:15.

She opened her Bible and got about half way through the chapter before she dozed off. So hard to keep the eyes open. But then the baby woke up, so she jumped up and got him out of his bed before he woke anyone else up.

She settled down to nurse and finished the chapter. Then closed her eyes to pray.

Half an hour later the 2 and 4 year olds woke her up asking for some breakfast. Sigh. I hope you understand, God. 

She put the baby in his seat, and went to fix breakfast, while directing the two older kids in feeding and caring for the pets. Her studying showed a good, hot, from-scratch breakfast would be best, but her dozing had made it late and cold cereal it would be again.

She did enjoy sitting at the table, visiting with her children for a few minutes. At least she did until one of them spilled their cereal.

She cleaned that up and filled a couple of dish pans with water. By letting the toddlers "wash" a couple of plastic dishes, she and her 6 year old could get the rest of the dishes washed, dried and put up. If the baby didn't cry.

Of course, then she had to clean up the toddler's dish pans. Oh well. The floor needed mopping anyway.

By now it was 8, so she rotated the laundry, throwing the clothes from the dryer onto her bed, and got everyone dressed and began hunting for shoes and jackets. They went outside and began to work in the garden. Well, she worked in the garden. The kids played in the dirt, found bugs, asked a million and three questions.

By 9 they all went on in the house, washed their hands (and ignored the dirty clothes. Sigh) and began to get the school books out.

She began the school day with singing a "Sunday School" song and prayer. Then they all practiced their memory verses. She nursed the baby again while she dictated the day's verse from Proverbs. Then they read a chapter from Genesis and drew a picture of the story. Each child retold the story to her in their own words as she wrote it down.

They practiced their poems (while the baby chattered with them), read a chapter from their history book and drew a picture of that, and looked at the pictures in a science book. She tried to read the passages that went with it, but the kids just weren't interested and it was too hard to make them listen.

The baby was asleep by now, so she laid him down on a blanket on the floor, explained the day's math lesson to her 6 year old, told her 4 year old to color a picture, and took her 2 year old on her lap. They looked at flash cards of animals and vehicles, sang their ABC's, and Itsey Bitsey Spider. He was happy he had "had school" then, and wandered off to play with blocks.

She called her 4 year old to her and they recited each sound to each alphabet letter while she pointed to them, then they practiced counting and she read him a story. He went off to play too.

The six year old's school took the longest. This required reading lessons as well as real math lessons and practice writing. A good 45 minutes to an hour.

It was about the time they finished she realized she couldn't see the little ones anymore and hadn't heard them in a bit. Oh the fear a mom feels.

Sigh. I guess I always wanted a variegated carpet in the hall way. How in the world did they get the oil paints from my high school art class anyway?

She cleaned it up the best she could, but now lunch was late and the baby was crying. Sandwiches it was again. Maybe she could talk the older ones into at least eating some carrots with it?

Lunch over and cleaned up, she handed each child a cloth and a squirt bottle of water and they all went to clean the living-room. It didn't get too soaking wet and thankfully it was a warm day so it would dry fast.

The kids went to play with their little cars, and she set in to do some dusting. It only took a few minutes before she heard an argument, though.

"He hit me!" 
"He pushed me!"
"Ok, tell me what happened, one at a time."

 It took a good 15 minutes, but the case had been investigated, a decision reached, the guilty punished (and more importantly, instructed in justice and compassion) and the victim comforted.  

Just then the 2 year old began to cry. A quick investigation showed a skinned knee. She tried to balance showing enough compassion without enough attention to encourage wimpyness.  The child needs to know mamma loves him but its no big deal to skin a knee.

The laundry is rotated, and she begins to fold the couple loads now on the bed. Of course she gets lots of volunteers. It would be easier and faster to do it myself, but they need to learn how, and anyway, I know what they are doing when they help me.

Her 4 year old asks why Aunt Kate wasn't at the last family gathering at Grandpa's last weekend while he fold the rags into teeny tiny bits, and She explains the best she can about divorce.

Her six year old gets bored with laundry and goes to color a picture, but comes with a puzzled look on her face.

"Why is Goldy floating on her back?" 

Oh dear.

She explains about death as they hold a watery funeral at the toilet. Then her 6 year old begins asking if her grandparents  will die, and her 4 year old wants to know how they would fit down the toilet if they did. A discussion of death, funerals, and Heaven follows.

Supper! I forgot supper! Well, Maybe it won't taste too bad if I just thaw it in the microwave instead of the fridge. 

Car for the baby again, and it was to clean the house, at least good enough her husband wouldn't break his leg trying to get from the front door to the bedroom. The edges and under furniture would just have to wait for another day. Though the children helped the best they could, they were simply too young to do much. How in the world do the same toys get scattered about the house everyday? And I don't even remember them playing with them. 

 She wasn't quite done when it was time to get supper cooking. The meat wasn't quite thawed, but she was unfortunately experienced with hurrying it up.

She had just enough time to brush her hair out before Hubby pulled in the drive.

Boy, was he tired. The boss had been in a bad mood, the shipment he needed hadn't come in, and a co-worker got hurt and Hubby had to fill out the accident report. He was so discouraged and tired.

She took his shoes off and rubbed his feet and encouraged him the best she could. She didn't feel like she did much, but he was in a better mood by the time she went to finish supper. 

She actually got to eat a few bites of supper before the baby wanted another diaper change. Yeah!

Then it was time to do the dishes and general clean up. Hubby volunteered to help, but he looked like he was fixing to fall over from exhaustion, so she sent him in the other room to hold the baby and watch TV while she and the kids cleaned up.

By the time the kitchen was back in some semblance of order, it was time to get everyone ready for bed and read bedtime stories. She made this faster by reading to all the kids at the same time.She could here what Hubby was watching and it sounded interesting, but she knew she wouldn't get a chance to see it.

She tucked the kids into bed, got drinks of water, explained that God can be green if He wants to be and allowed sin because He wanted us to choose to love Him. We can't choose if we don't have a choice (why do kids always save their philosophical questions until bedtime?)

Then she gets to sit down with Hubby and have a bowl of ice cream while they watch a half hour of TV, but he is so tired they turn the TV off and go to bed. He's asleep almost before his head hits the pillow. 

She lays awake for nearly an hour, thinking over all that happened that day, all the times she snapped at the kids, or didn't act with the patience she should have, all the housework that didn't get done, all the craft projects that could have gone with their school, but she just didn't have the time or energy to do.

Finally, she got up and fixed herself a cup of chamomile tea, and sat in the big over stuffed chair in the living room with her tablet. Maybe getting her mind on something else would help.

She opened her tablet to one of her favorite blogs. Today's post had a link to an article the blog owner called "inspiring," so She clicked on it and read.

The article talked about Jesus' command in Matthew 28 to go into all the world and make disciples of all people. It talked about how all Christians need to get out of their comfort zone, out of their four walls, and go work for God. How we are told to bear fruit, so if we aren't bringing others to God we are disappointing, nay, DISOBEYING Him.

And she cried.

God, I try so hard. I work so long. I see what these scriptures are saying and what You want, but how can I do them? My babies need me, we can't afford daycare, I could never get a job that would even pay for daycare. And I firmly believe You want our children given an education that is based in You and Your Word. The godless public schools can't do that. How do I obey You? How do I minister to others AND fulfill my obligations here?

And, crying softly, she fell asleep.

And She began to dream.

There in front of her was the same overstuffed arm chair, but with Someone sitting in it. He looked a lot like her grandpa who She missed so much since his passing, but she knew He wasn't Grandpa. It was God Himself.

She fell on her knees in front of Him and began to worship. He chuckled and picked her up, setting her on His, like her grandpa used to when She was little.

"What's wrong, Dear One?"

She snuggled in and began to pour out her heart to Him; every disappointment and inadequacy. Every failure.

"I just don't know how to minister to others the way the Bible tells me to and fulfill my jobs here, too."

"Oh, Dear One. I did not want you to read that article. Your enemy put it in your path to discourage you and tempt you away from the job I have given you.

"You see, Sweetheart, you have ministered to others today. You clothed the naked, fed the hungry, one of them with your own body. You have comforted the broken hearted and given comfort to the mourning. You administered justice and taught compassion. You showed them who I am by exemplifying Me.

"You brought rest and refreshment to the weary and helped carry his burden.

"And most of all, you laid the foundation for three generations of Warriors in My Kingdom.

"And you almost caught the laundry up to boot! You did good, Child."

"But shouldn't I be bringing the lost to You? There are so many who are in danger of Hell, so many who need to know You. Shouldn't I be out telling them about You?"

"Dear One, the lost in your own home- those precious lambs I gave you to bring up for Me- are just as important as the lost in Africa or Asia.

"The Bishop of your home, your husband, is in as much, maybe more, need of your support and encouragement than the minister to the inner city who gets the praise of his peers. There are women without small children and men available to do those other jobs. That is not your concern. You are the only one on the entire planet who can do the job under this roof that needs to be done for My Kingdom.

"The world, and sadly many in My church, do not value this mission field I have given you, but it is the most important field there is. Without this job being done- and done well, as you are doing- without the warriors you are training, the world is lost."

"It feels so thankless, so endless. Sometimes I just want to do something someone will notice."

"I notice.

"And the day will come, when all your babies can take care of themselves, that I will send you other jobs to add to this one, jobs in your church or neighborhood that you will be able to do. The day will come when you won't have children at home and you will minister outside these walls. You might work in food kitchens, or ministry in your church. You might do something that you get paid for, but that will put those in your path that need to hear about Me.

"But no matter what job that is that I will call you to, this job you are doing right now, this never ending job that is so despised by the world, is the most important job you will ever do in your life.

"And now, my precious child, you need your rest. You have another long day of ministering tomorrow. So go on to bed now."

"I love You."

"I love you too, Dear one. Goodnight."

And she woke up.

Her tablet had shut itself off and the room was dark. She thought of her dream for a minute.

Then smiling, she went to bed.