Joyous Living Meets Trudging through Daily Life

     Yesterday I truly thought life was going to smother me it seemed so heavy. My "to-do" list was a mile long, plus as I looked around my house, it was in complete chaos and disarray. At that point my daughter appears "dressed" for the day in short-sleeves and in her favorite 3 years too small shorts (current temp 40 degrees). Yep, this is the day - those are officially too small! So as I tell her those can't work anymore because of how BIG she is, the tears start. "I don't have any other pants!" she hollers. I tell her to go find something. Here's her solution... She comes back moments later with black leggings under them! How she know the fashion trend I don't know, but I tell her that's not what I asked. Feeling the rumblings of a pending earthquake inside her, I take her in my lap. "Sweetie, how about if today, you and I go thru your clothes? Pick out good ones, weed out the small and worn out ones and see what you've got for spring?" Her face lit up with excitement and her warm hug sealed the deal. Hippity-hoppity we cross the house to her room. We open the door- Ahhh! I can't even step into this room-there's no place to even put myself or the clothes. "Mackenzie," I say in the sweetest voice possible, "we can't even touch the clothes until we deal with all this," So we spent the next 3 1/2 hours cleaning, sorting and organizing my 7 year old's room. The result? Well, after 2 full sized kitchen trash bags full of trash and discarded broken stuff, the results were quite satisfying.  My stomach was in one of those cub scout knots Caleb like to practice and my eyes felt as if they had a baking soda and vinegar mixture put behind them, but it was conquered! And I slept soundly because of it.

    Before I left her room, I asked her, "Mack, can you work to keep it lookling closer to this and not let it get THAT bad again?" "I'll try, mom, but I'm not sure," was her reply. I love her honesty.

     Messy rooms and messy hearts share some commonality. For one, they don't usually get there overnight - although having a group of kids over can surly do some immediate damage, as can a late night, foolish adult decision. But as for the usual, everyday life goes, if you leave yesterdays clothes on the floor rather than in the dirty clothes basket, before long, you've got a pile of clothes on the floor! Well, if we leave yesterday's hurts, disappointments or bad attitudes unattended and lying around, they build up just like laundry. In fact, they can even take root and grow (laundry only seems to!) Daily pick up in our rooms and daily pick ups in our heart leave our surroundings in a better place for fruits like love, joy and peace to grow! It really is important to clean up after ourselves after all.

      As I was about to blow with all that had to be done that day, I kept praying Jesus' words in Mat 11:28. "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

     "Lord, I don't know what I'm carrying then, because this is HEAVY!" The verse would echo back again, "Come to me. Come to me. Lay it down here. That's mine to carry." Then I would counter, "But I'm really strong Lord, I've been exercising. I crushed P90X plyos the other day." "Do you want to carry that?" came the reply. "No, Lord, you can have it - here, I lay it down. You are my Lord and I trust in you!"

     When I begin to weary under the burden I'm carrying, it's time to stop, and do some heart cleaning. Just like I couldn't sort clothes until I had a place to sort, sometimes I can't go forward until I off-load my burdens.