I’m Blessed

I’m not going to lie.  My kids are annoying the daylights out of me this morning.  In fact, last night I was annoyed too.  We had fun at some friends’ house for the super bowl.  We kept the kids up really late to see the end and then drove home.  I’m sure many of you can relate to dragging in half-awake kids and putting them to bed.  It’s not exactly fun.  After that I started getting things ready for school this week.  Crayons were all over the floor in the living room (where they’re not allowed) and crayon was colored all over the coffee table that was dragged in there, and legos were in every crevice known in the room.  I noticed that my normal school areas were a mess, and tried to remember how that happened.  Then I remembered I went to the grocery store with Ingrid as Knut stayed home with the other kids.  I’m not sure why this is happening, because normally Knut is the “clean one” of the two of us, but lately whenever Ingrid and I go someplace, we come home to a disaster.  It doesn’t feel like a break then.  It’s time away that I pay dearly for.

So I was annoyed.  I was annoyed that Monday was going to start out messy, and it was already 11pm and I didn’t want to start cleaning the whole house, and Ingrid wouldn’t sleep anyway, and I was tired, and trying to get school started would be hard in these messy places, and why do the kids just walk over the toys like it was the floor, and why don’t they stop and say “huh, I just stepped on a toy.  Maybe I should pick it up and put it away before it gets destroyed.”  No one cared, and no one listens to me, and no one thinks, I am the only one that tells people to clean up, and am I the only one that sees this mess?!?

I’m sure no mothers can relate to those thoughts that seem to run through your mind as a train that’s gaining speed until it blows.  Of course, it’s not true.  Knut sees the mess.  The kids I’m not so sure about.  They don’t make glasses strong enough for them to notice things I wish they noticed.  Knut was just was watching 4 kids by himself, and he wasn’t feeling the best, and doesn’t that happen to me all the time?  The house gets messy on my watch daily.  I know that.

Sorry, my thoughts were just interrupted by a little girl who says she can’t practice the piano because a few keys are out of tune and it bothers her ears and doesn’t sound right.  Sorry little diva.  You take what you get.

I’m not so uplifting this morning, am I?  As I sit here typing, I see above our fireplace our theme of the month “Never stopping, never giving up, always and forever love” (a quote from the Jesus Storybook Bible).  I think through the verses the kids are memorizing this month: the whole chapter of 1 Corinthians 13.

“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
If I give all I possess to the poor, and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”

It goes on from there, but I find that this passage is a double edged sword of law and grace.  When I think about how much I have not loved today, I’m shamed.  I simply cannot love all the time like that.

But when I think about God’s love.  When I think again of His ‘hesed‘ I am overwhelmed with compassion.    My uptightness relaxes, and I breathe a sigh of relief.
God is patient, God is kind…
He always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

I need this God this morning.  I need this love.  I am so blessed by it.

When I fail, he does not.  When I am unloving, he pours it on.  When I am unlovable, He loves anyway, and He loves with a fierce passion…one that brought Him to the cross.

Today I’m simply blessed by the cross.  I’m blessed by His love.

How has God blessed you today?