It was a tiresome day. Maybe because I woke up at 5:45 to take an exercise walk, and I was still sore from a hike in the hills yesterday. Maybe because it's laundry day and for whatever reason, all that bending and reaching and leaning over makes my back hurt. Maybe because I added an abs workout to my exercise routine, and then, because the abs workout brought me in close contact with the floor, I thoroughly vacuumed the living room carpets and wooden floors, which meant a fair amount of picking up toys and moving around of furniture. After all that, I was physically tired.
I was also socially and emotionally exhausted because on Tuesdays my youngest doesn't go to school, and today he wanted to tell me something every 5 minutes. "Mommy, look at this," "Mommy, come see this," "Mommy, I want to watch a movie. "Mommy, why can't we watch a movie? "Mommy, when are Lee and Rose coming home?"
When Lee and Rose did come home, Lee sought to add a little chaos into everyone's lives by provoking Benny, showing off, throwing his blankets around, and sneaking out of his room when I told him to stay.
Not only this, but I let my daughter bring a friend home, and I think she was trying to impress her friend by ignoring my instructions, back talking, and complaining to her friend how she hates it when I wash her sheets because I throw all her blankets and stuffed animals on the floor.
At 8pm, already in my pajamas and ready to call it quits, I flopped exhausted onto my bed.
"I feel like I got beat up today," I told Phil.
I don't know how God does it everyday all day long for eternity. I don't know how he handles everyone crying his name in every country every millisecond. I don't know how he handles people adding chaos to his ordered world—antagonizing one another, showing off, using their possessions to befuddle others, and not staying where he puts them. And I don't know how he handles our attitudes, especially when we complain about how messy he makes our lives while cleaning up our hearts.
God must have an infinite supply of patience. Either that or, by some miracle, he's found a way to still love us despite the grief we cause him.
I suppose it's both. Right? God has found a way to love us despite the grief we've caused him, and because of this, he can have patience with us. He did it by being made a man and taking upon himself the wrath of God, which would've otherwise interfered with our relationship. It's through this miracle that he can love us deeply and dearly and intimately. He can delight in us and converse with us without our crimes getting in the way because the crimes have been paid for.
No matter what we do, he'll remain our Heavenly father. And he won't give up growing and cleansing our hearts no matter how messy it seems to make our lives.
As for my children, they just needed a good spanking to pay for their own crimes.
More lessons in parenting: Mother's Day Testimony, When the People I Love Fight, It's Just a Phase, Just Say Thank You, Ministry, A Kids Lesson on Revenge, People Not Moving Fast Enough, Bid For Intimacy
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