Earth Shattering Calls from God... Errrr not...

I wrote this awhile ago, but it was in the last MOPS newsletter and it was a good reminder to myself. Especially with summer coming up!  Enjoy! 

It was an amazing weekend filled with amazing women, amazing speakers, and amazing sessions.  To give you a better feel… it was… well… amazing.  The “Hearts at Home” conference had wrapped up and I was filled to the brim.  The Lord had certainly shown up as thousands of moms converged on the Rochester Civic Center for 24 hours of worship, fellowship, eating, chatting, learning, shopping and growing.  We heard incredible words of encouragement from Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, we laughed until we had tears streaming down our faces from listening to a hysterical improv trio.  The Lord was blessing us in immeasurable ways, allowing us to be filled with His Glory!

The following week as I was looking back on this high experience I had so many ideas and thoughts floating in my head that I didn’t know how to begin to process.  Being a note taker I thought that my first line of duty would be to spend some time reading through and re-copying my notes, in fun colors and nicer handwriting for easy access of future reference of course!  Side note on that… As I’m writing this, I went to go grab my notes to look them over, only to realize that I really have NO CLUE where I put them.  Awesome.  Anyways.  I had re-written my notes and had about 4,936 things that I was going to put into action as a Christ-follower, a wife, a mother, a Children’s Ministry worker, a friend, and as a homemaker.  I had gone to sessions about relationships with close friends, listened to speakers talk about organization and learning to “FLY” (Finally Love Yourself), watched as women spoke of heartache and past regrets turned to an intense desire to impress a love for God on their children’s hearts.  I was ready to hit it, head on!  Oh wait… I should probably pray about this.  I have a tendency to bite off a lot to chew, so I figured I should seek the Father’s guidance on this one.  So I sat before Him with these words, “Lord, what an awesome weekend!  You have blessed me with an indescribable weekend and there is so much that I have taken away.  Lord, lead me to the steps that you want me to take in my life that will glorify You.  Help me to listen to Your voice and know the things you want me to do.”  I was armed and ready to be Super Wife, Super Mom, and Super Christian!  I was ready to listen, for He was sure to give me great direction and clarity.  After all, I had just spent a weekend gulping up every sweet word like honey.  And sure enough, the Lord spoke!  And this is what He said, “Clean off your kitchen island countertop.”  Umm. What?! Surely I was just being distracted by things in my house and I was not focusing on His bold words to me.  “Ok Lord, I’m listening,” I prayed.  This time as I felt more focused, He was louder and clearer and He said, “CLEAN OFF YOUR KITCHEN ISLAND COUNTERTOP!”  Oh.  That IS what you said.  Ummmm, ok.  So I set to the task of cleaning off the island.  I made sure I was putting everything away in the spots they needed to go, not just moving junk around.  It was all cleaned off and I approached the throne again.  “Done Lord!  What’s next?”  “Keep it clean,” he said.  “WHAT?!  Do you know that I just went to this incredible conference with nationally known speakers, ONE WHO HAS 19 KIDS NONETHELESS!  I’m ready to take on big things Lord!  Come on, lay it on me!”  Again He said, “Just keep your counter clean.”  Well I rolled with it.  I guess I had to admit that if this was all He wanted me to do for now, then I got off easy! 

After several days of guarding my precious, clean island like an armored soldier, I realized just why the Lord had called me to this task.  After many days I saw just how this island was becoming our meeting grounds.  Each afternoon, my older kids would come home from school, come into the kitchen where I would have a snack waiting for them on the island (previously, they’d just rummage through the pantry to find something to grab) and we would all congregate around chatting over the day, talking about what they had for lunch, what happened at recess, who interrupted the teacher and got in trouble, what people had for show-and-tell, and so on.  God desires for us to reach the hearts of our children for Christ.  Communication (and good snacks!) are a central way to do that.  When they know that we are safe, that they can come to us, when they have open lines of communication with us to talk about whatever it is they need to talk about, then we as parents have the extreme privilege of being the place where faith is caught, rather than only taught.  We can show our real selves to them just as they do with us. 

Our kitchen island is becoming a place of centrality.  It’s becoming a place that I hold dear to my heart as a place where relationships with our family are built.  When God told me to clean off my counter, I was almost offended, like He was disgusted with the cleanliness of my home.  But that wasn’t it at all.  He was giving me the opportunity to capture the hearts of my children for His glory.  And for that, I’ll be eternally grateful for the soul-saving-earth-shattering-mission-driven charge of… cleaning my countertop. ;)