Made For More?

Have you read your Bible and all the books, washed your tears, made your lists, prayed circles around them, pulled yourself up by your bootstraps ready to do all the things and find your “more”, and then…..

remembered the laundry

forgot to lay out something for dinner

the baby pooped

homeschool is waiting

had to wash dishes so you could see the sink again

had to feed the baby

remembered you hadn’t brushed your teeth yet today

and it was time to pick up the kids

and the baby is napping so you’ll have to wake him up

now he’s crying while you’re trying to sort homework and dinner prep

and the bigs are fussing over who knows what

because ‘we’re starving’ so

you give them a snack before practice which you have to leave NOW for

and your husband is home and cuddly and you remember you want to …. you know

but you’re so daggone tired

and realize you still haven’t brushed your teeth and the baby is crying again…..

Anyone? I know you’re out there because everywhere you look, online, bookshelves, bible studies, women’s conferences, the mirror…… we are filled with this idea that there is, and should be, more.

I’m not writing this post to dispute that idea, at all. On the daily, after homeschooling my five, keeping up the house, feeding the masses and loving my husband, I feel like there’s more. I want to write, I want to have lunch with girlfriends, I want to travel, I want to run and go to the gym regularly, I want to not feel like I’m constantly swimming upstream…. But I also feel, on the daily, that so much of that is because I’m failing to see what’s right in front of me.

Sure, I see the dishes and piles of clothes and the empty menu sheet, and the baby who wants me to build a block tower with him, and the 4th grader who wants to do math with mom, and the princess who is still learning to read, and the budding artist who wants to create and the 2nd grader who just wants -mom, food, to play, food, mom-, and dinner fast approaching but still no plan….

But it’s like we look lovingly at what and who is before us, then we peer just over their heads and dream about what else there could be. I could be an author, I could go back to work, I could have shopping and lunch dates with the girls, I could___________. You fill in the blank, because we all have our own dream of more.

And we read all the books reminding us the world is waiting for our brand of wonderful, but what if ….. what if, the world that is waiting on you, is those right in front of you. The ones with messy faces, and poopy drawers, and the needy attention seekers? What if they ARE your more that God has called you to?

I think a LOT about my Gram. If you’ve followed me long, you know she passed about six months ago after living with us her final ten years and being first in my corner for all 43 of my life. At her Celebration of Life, my oldest uncle, her stepson, called her “a force of nature”. Accurate. And then he told a story about being a wayward slacker, only caring about skipping school with his dog and skipping rocks at the river, until she came along and his dad married her. She expected more, and even though they butted heads for years over it, her expectations began with his education. Understand, this was the mid 40’s, and Gram herself was a college educated woman….not common for women at that time, but education was how she saw the ability to change the future. Fast forward to her children, my mom and two uncles, because of her influence on their world, they all, in their own time, developed an appreciation and desire for education. My siblings and cousins are third generation seekers of higher education, why? Because in the 40’s, my Gram knew her sphere of influence, her more, her mark on the world, would be through them for generations, and changed the world for three little people. Now, her seven great-grandchildren (five with me, two with a cousin) are also being taught the value and importance of education, and the love of learning.

One woman is still having an affect four generations later. Do you see? FOUR GENERATIONS! Because she knew her ‘more’ was right in front of her, and didn’t try to look past that. She had dishes and laundry and dinner. She worked both in and our of the home over the years. She met friends for lunch. And I’m sure, even though she’s no longer here for me to ask, she had days of feeling isolated, or frustrated, or flat out over it. I don’t think for a second it was free of struggle….it was probably very much like we feel today….but without the constant idea that our something more is ‘out there’, or more glamorous, or bigger, or more influence, or more important, or _______ (again, you fill in with your own ideas)

I can’t think of anything bigger, more important, or a place I have more influence, then with those right in front of me. I have the pleasure, the gift, the amazing opportunity to affect generations. That’s huge folks. That’s significant influence. And it doesn’t have to be about education. My greatest hope is, and greatest joy will come in knowing my children and my children’s children know and love the Lord. And maybe one day I’ll run again, or have lunch with friends when they are old enough to stay home and still do their school work, or be a writer.

But I think we need to remember, I need to remember, if you have been given charge over little ones, that it’s ok….no, it’s way more than ok…. it’s phenomenal to know you were made for them. Keep reading your Bible, keep reminding yourself WHO made you, then look in front of you to see whom He made you for. Everything else you are reading and allowing to pile on the pressure (blog posts, books, memes…) will pass. None of that is lasting, but the impact you have on the lives of the next generation of moms, dads, pastors, teachers, doctors, athletes, writers, artists, nurses, construction workers, farmers, inventors……. it’s important. It’s a big deal. It is lasting to the next generation, and the next… It is MORE.

And YOU are who God has specifically gifted and called to the people in your sphere…..so get up, wash your face, read your Bible, do the dishes, change the baby, teach the kids, make all the food and accomplish what you can in the season you are in with all you have to offer today. Then do it again tomorrow and the next day ‘as unto the Lord, giving thanks to God the Father’ (Col 3:23). It might not feel like much some days and it might get old a lot of days, but that doesn’t make it less than. You are made in the image of Christ, for MORE.

Be blessed and encouraged today!

~Jules