Every. Single. Time.
I have tried everything: locking the door, leaving the door open and slipping in when no one is looking, threats, bribes. Nothing works. I have finally come to the conclusion that my children have rigged up an alarm system.
By this time I am sure you are wondering what on earth I am talking about. It is a most basic human need: going to the bathroom. I am guessing most of you mothers can relate, as soon as I sit down, a child bursts through my door. I really have no other explanation than an alarm system in my toilet seat. You may ask why I don’t simply lock the door. Two reasons. One, my children work on doorknobs until they pop the locks. Two, they would just stand on the other side of the door and yell to me. As I mentioned, I also tried sneaking in and leaving the door open. Nope, someone was there immediately. Lately when someone runs in I don’t even bother saying “Out!” I just make a noise like someone stepped on a sheep, “Blaaah!” It usually sends them back out the door quickly.
The other day I thought I had won a couple minutes. I sat down and, nothing. Thirty seconds later my daughter came running into the room out of breath, late for the alarm.
I hadn’t realized my nieces and nephews had rigged my sister’s bathroom. I was over there a couple days ago and sure enough, from the other side of the door, “Auntie? Auntie? Can you hear me?”
As much as I love my children and enjoy being with them, it would be nice to be able to use the restroom in peace, by myself. I suppose that day will come eventually. I have been told I will even miss irritations like these when my children are all gone. Right now that day seems a long way off. However, time does go by quickly. That is probably why we are told in the Bible to make the most of each day, guiding and training our children moment by moment.
So for now I will join in Paul’s prayer in Colossians 4:3-6, “And pray for us, too, that God may open a door, (hopefully not the bathroom door) for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ…Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; (even those outside your bathroom door) make the most of every opportunity, (even the irritating ones.) Let your conversation be always full of grace…so that you may know how to answer everyone.”
Do you remember your grandma’s hands? I remember my great-grandmother’s hands. Gnarled from arthritis, but still strong. Pouring love into the peach cobbler she was sure to have warm from the oven when we would arrive. I recall one time she was ruefully looking at her wrinkled hands. She thought they were past their prime, I thought they were beautiful.
My sister and I would make cards and pictures ahead of time to hand out after the service, carefully coloring and gluing pictures to pieces of construction paper. As we would make our rounds I would hand a little piece of my heart, glued to paper, to eager hands. What they really wanted to hold, though were my hands.
march of time. There was almost an urgency, an insistence behind those clasps. As though I were giving them a quick reminder of life and youth, the same feeling you would have holding a fresh rose.
In those quick moments, I almost feel as if they were handing me a baton. They were imparting their strength to encourage me to run the race well. There was an expectation as well, that when it comes my time that I will also hand over that baton and cheer on the next runners of this marathon called life.
My little three year old had quite a day today. She started off by playing with the phone and accidentally dialing 911. When the emergency operator called back, her older brother assured them that everything was fine. A few minutes later, of course, the sheriff knocked at the door to double check. My five year old beat everyone to the door and opened it wide. My three year old proudly joined her brother at the door, wearing nothing but her birthday suit. I am not sure what the officers thought at this point, but they were quickly assured that we were indeed fine, that baby was just playing with the phone and is potty-training.
Shortly after this, her brother decided to dump a cup of water over her head. Then he decided to flush her favorite sticker, “Little Johnny,” down the toilet. By this time she figured maybe she should just go outside for awhile, only to discover a frog in her shoe! It is a good thing that toddlers are resilient, (and mothers too!) She took all this in stride, and even enjoyed telling us the ‘fwog in my shoe’ story over and over.
It made me think about our lives and how we try to do the same thing. We clean up our act or clean up our mouths. We try to be good people. However we get the same results I got with my house cleaning. When the light comes in it shows that our efforts, no matter how sincere, are simply not good enough. We are just not able to clean ourselves.
Thank goodness for Jesus! He came to do the job for us. He is the ultimate “house keeper.” When we finally decide to give up and tell Him we have had enough of trying to do it on our own, He shows up to wash us whiter than snow, cleanse us from our sin, and purify us from unrighteousness. After that there is no more worry about what the light of day might reveal about our hearts.
Another great thing about Jesus is He is not like the house keepers at the hotels, the ones who make up the room while you are gone and you never really get to know. Once He is in your life He is closer to you than anyone else and just a prayer away. In fact He promises to never leave you stranded, to be with you always. So while I may never have a perfectly clean house here on Earth, I can look forward to eternity spent with Jesus in a heavenly mansion that will never need a house keeper.
Faith. It seems like such a big word, doesn’t it? When I think of people who have faith, I think they must be spiritual giants. Or be able to face down giants like David did. I think of the “Hall of Faith,” in the book of Hebrews in the Bible. There are people like Noah, who listened to God rather than everyone around him; Abraham, who just up and followed God when he didn’t even know where God was taking him; and Jacob whose descendants became Israel! To say I get a little intimidated would be an understatement.
If I am in a situation requiring faith, and I start comparing my wavering little bit of faith to people like these, my tiny amount of faith can disappear. However, there is some good news for me, and for you if you feel this same way. The section in Hebrews does not end after touting all these Biblical heroes’ deeds of faith. It goes on to talk to us! Hebrews 11:40 says, “God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.” And then Hebrews 12:1-2a goes on to say, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything, (such as fear) that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.”
How great is that? Jesus Himself is the author of our faith, we don’t have to try to create faith on our own. We can cry out to Jesus honestly, and tell Him we need some faith. We do not need to be intimidated by people of faith, because they are the ones cheering us on. We don’t even need a large amount of faith to do amazing things either. Jesus said if we have faith the size of a mustard seed, some phenomenal things can happen. For David to take down a giant, it only took faith the size of a pebble!
“I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” Matthew 17:20-21
Do you ever feel like other people or even the world try to put their “stuff” on you? Sometimes it’s negative things like judgments, or harsh comments, but it could even be something that others might consider helpful, just not helpful to you. It is hard to have the confidence to know what God is saying to you personally sometimes. Going back to the account of David and Goliath in the Bible, I see David experiencing this type of situation.
When David said he would fight Goliath, King Saul immediately spoke a negative judgment to David, “You are not able…you are only a boy.” How many times have we had someone say something similar to us? “You are not able…you are only, (fill in the blank.)” I know I have let this kind of comment stop me in my tracks. David was different though, he had spent so much time with God that he knew what he himself was capable of and he definitely knew what his God was capable of. He spoke up to Saul and convinced him to let him go confront the giant. Basically he had to choose not to receive the negative words from Saul.
However, King Saul still wasn’t completely sure that David could do things his own way. He put his own armor on David, trying to be “helpful.” Have you ever experienced this? Throughout my life I have had so many well-meaning people try to put what has worked for them, or kept them safe, onto me. When I would try their advice on, I had the same feeling of awkwardness that David had trying to move around in Saul’s bulky armor. Once again, David convinced Saul to let him do things his way, which was really the way God had taught him. This time David had to say, “no, thank you,” to something that could have seemed good, it just wasn’t the best.