Do Everything

So, in my travels around blogdom, I've been seeing links to Spiritual Sundays posts all over the place. I finally made my way to the website this weekend, and decided that it was high time to join in!

My first thought was to blog about this morning's sermon at church. We've been studying the book of Romans for a while now, and I've learned so much about grace, salvation, sin, obedience... Today, the narrower topic was "Winning the War Inside Me." As believers, we have opposing natures that are always at war within us - our original, sinful nature (our "default" setting) and the new nature that is created in when we are saved. However, just being saved doesn't automatically make us perfect - as any Christian very well knows. We still have to fight that default setting and strive to let the more perfect nature shine through. Not always easy, is it? I am so thankful for a Savior that helps me whenever I call on him.

And even though that's a perfectly wonderful topic to blog about, something else struck me this evening instead.

The children had just headed off to bed, and Gene was on the couch watching TV (which is his personal default setting.) Not wanting to watch what he was watching, I figured it was as good a time as any to tackle some housework.

Sunday night has become the new Monday morning for me. I rather dread them. Sunday night nearly always means grocery shopping, so that particular trip won't interrupt our homeschool routine on Monday. Other plans for tomorrow have tossed our routine to the wind anyway, so I decided to postpone the groceries until then. A small reprieve for my evening.

But there was still the little matter of the kitchen to clean up. Not such a little matter, actually. There were still dishes in the sink from breakfast (had to hurry to church!) and from lunch (naptime!) and now from dinner too. Exacerbating the issue was the fact that Gene had cooked dinner - a task for which I am very grateful. However, the man is capable of utterly destroying the kitchen in mere minutes. He had made hamburgers on the griddle, so there was grease splattered for at least four square feet to clean up. Every remaining clean dish was now dirtied and piled precariously in the sink. Leftover lettuce and tomato was still piled on the cutting board. Cheese wrappers. Bread crumbs. The mayonnaise that didn't make it back into the fridge. It was actually a little amusing in its atrocity. I'm not sure I could make a mess like that if I'd tried - and certainly not as quickly!

So I cleaned all of that up. Gathered up the scattered remains of the morning newspaper from the table. Swept the floor. Folded the laundry that was waiting in the dryer, so I could dry the load waiting in the washer.

It was in the middle of all of this, as I wiped down the table, that I started to mentally grumble. Why was I doing all the work while he sat on his butt and watched TV? Sure, he has to get up early in the morning and go to work, but it's not like I have an easy day ahead of me either. Homeschooling while babysitting, visiting my mother-in-law in the hospital, and grocery shopping with what will certainly be tired and hungry children by the time we get there. Oh, and I have to get gas first, since he parked the van with the gas light on after church today. Not to mention the emotional aspect of my day tomorrow (please, if you're reading this, pray for my dear and hurting friend...)

No, my day will not a piece of cake, but I'm expected to "do it all" anyway. Why isn't he helping? Why does everything fall on me? Can't I be tired too? Can't I have a break? Whine, moan, complain.

Then, I happened to remember a song that I heard on the radio earlier today. I've heard it before (and love it), and I'm thankful that it came back just when I needed it. It's called Do Everything, by Steven Curtis Chapman, and it could easily be a full-time mom's anthem. The very first words are: "You're picking up toys on the living room floor for the fifteenth time today; matching up socks and sweeping up lost Cheerios that got away."

Oh yes, this is a song for me.

But the ultimate point of the song is not lamenting the role of the mom (or student, or businessman, or burger flipper) - it's remembering why it is that we do what we do. Check out the chorus:

Do everything you do to the glory of the One who made you

'Cause He made you

To do every little thing that you do to bring a smile to His face

And tell the story of grace with every move that you make

And every little thing that you do.

I so needed that tonight. And as I hummed it, I felt so much better about the "little" chores, the "meaningless" tasks, the "thankless" jobs. Turns out it's all about perspective, and they only seemed little and meaningless to me.

Thank you, Lord, for a home to keep and a family to care for. And not necessarily in that order.

Here's the (really cute and very creative) video for Do Everything - take just a couple of minutes to watch it, and I bet it'll bring a smile to your face too!