Dirty dishes...

"Mom! I found a way we can make a Harry Potter wand!!", Jude exclaimed as I was wiping down the table after dinner. Everyone had already been excused from the table and went their separate ways. I looked over at the sink, the counter covered with crumbs, then underneath the table at the remnants of dinner that had slipped through little fingers while we laughed, chatted and ate together minutes before. 

I looked at the mess. Then looked into the excited, eager eyes of my Harry Potter loving, 5 year old. 

I put down my rag and sat down to watch a tutorial on how to make a wand. 

Before I knew it Jude had jetted out to find a stick, I had warmed my hot glue gun, my art box filled with paint and brushes was on the table, and we were knee deep in a handmade wand. 

The girls ran in as we finished up and decided all three of them should paint when they saw the art supplies out. 

So, I pulled out a cover for the table and read the parable of the Easter lily while they painted what Palm Sunday means to them on little white paper plates. 

We also hung our Easter banner yesterday afternoon. Hayden had a soccer game yesterday morning and we went to the "Easterpalooza" at church shortly after. With all that going on, I almost forgot to put it up again yesterday after forgetting to put it up the week before. It worked out perfectly though, because it opened up an opportunity for us to talk about the meaning of Easter and the significance and symbolism of Palm Sunday. I'm always abundantly thankful for these tiny moments that get my children's attention and allow me to capture their hearts in the process.  

As if yesterday couldn't get any sweeter, I walked upstairs after finally finishing those dirty dishes and found my four loves reading and conversing before bed. 

Yesterday was so full. Full of life and joy. 

It reminded me that my job as a mother isn't just in keeping a tidy house. It's about tending to the hearts of my children. It's postponing the dishes and sweeping the floors to instead make a wand, read a story, and share the gospel with my children- To not just teach them with my words, but also by my actions. See, what I took from yesterday is this: If we as moms don't make time for the small things that are meaningful to our children, we will never be able to capture their hearts with the bigger picture.  

Here's the other thing I took from yesterday: after losing my Pa just one week, two days ago, I still want to cry at the drop of a hat and sleep all day...but I can't. My children and husband need me present. 

My Pa lived and breathed to make known the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I hope I can be half as sold out as he was. 

I know that starts in my home. 

Friday was one week since he passed. It was a hard day for me but I found comfort in this passage of scripture from 2 Corinthians 4:7-18 as well as a sobering perspective on my job as a mother. It reads:

"But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed,but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen,since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."

So, I'll take comfort in the truth that as a Christian I can rejoice in life after death and be reunited with my Pa someday. 

And, I will remember to fix my eyes not on the unsightly sink full of dishes, but on the unseen truth of the Gospel being poured into the hearts of my children as I do my best to live out the instructions of Deuteronomy 6:7-9,

"Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates."