My Kids Can Do Anything (and other things I've learned)

Wisdom I’ve gained from prolonged weakness:

1.My kids can do anything.

I’ve always been a delegator… I mean do you know anyone else who gives their two year old a daily chore? My one year old “helps” put away the plastic cups from the dishwasher and groceries (she’s soo cute. Today she had a brick of cheese and she says”heb-y” for heavy.)
But I digress.

I have discovered through weakness the need to delegate on a new level. And you know? I’ve found if I can provide vision and direction (and even sometimes when I can’t) my kids can learn to do it. Just the need is enough. And they amaze me. The weaker I am, the stronger they have become. They have developed so many great skills and are so proud of the contributions they make to our home and each other, as well they should be.

2. Cleanliness is relative

… (and right now my relatives are struggling with it. Just joking! )

What I mean to say is that the standards I used to keep have had to be adjusted. I have had to prioritize, and that means we clean the kitchen first, so we can stay healthy. We haven’t done so well with the corners, the closets, and the barn or the dusting. Some days it really seems we are almost caught up, then other days we seem to be barely getting by. But the good news is we’re still happy. I used to keep the standards. Now I just keep praying and receiving more grace.

3. I’m really a proud person.

I have always been able to produce, and I’ve been proud of this. Now on days when I’m blessed to get out of bed, I am humbled. I am poor in spirit. And that’s a good thing. And when my teens fly through with their perpetual round of friends to feed and house for the night, I am humbled anew because at times they get to step across food on the floor, use a dirty bathroom, get their drink next to a pile of dishes, and squeeze past Mount Laundry on their way through. Sometimes I am so humbled I can’t even stand to watch. The old me would have been bustling about fixing and cleaning. The new weakened me often gets to have a conversation with a young group of God-lovers.

4. Less is the new more

Doing less has allowed me to evaluate the life I used to live through new eyes. My Lord has shown me that my mothering has very little to do with the work I accomplish on their behalf, as I always used to believe. In fact, if my limbs did not work at all ( and I’m so grateful they do) I would still be able to be a loving mother by the choices I make for them personally and spiritually, and the way I run my home.

II Corinthians 12:7-9 Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself!

Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.”

Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.