I decided to start a new hobby. Glass-blowing. I am not really an artist, I don't have any experience or training, I've never really been shown how or taught, but I think it will be nice and beautiful and fun and will be a blessing to my family.
Here's the problem. Every time I try my hand at glass-blowing, my neighbors come over and smash my work. I don't think they always do it on purpose, but it happens every time they come into my workspace. And of course, they don't help me clean it up or pay for the materials. I have tried to show them how to be careful around my work. I have tried to involve them in glass-blowing so they take an interest in it as well, but they just aren't interested in the process, nor do they value the results of my work, amateur as it may be. I have tried keeping them out of my workspace, but they show no regard for my requests. Nothing seems to work. But I keep trying. I mean, I really want to be good at glass-blowing, AND I really want to have my neighbors over. So in the interest of maintaining good friendships and not driving myself batty I choose to limit my glass-blowing efforts. I would just give up altogether, but I feel like this is REALLY important! Now I have a confession. I'm not a glass-blower. I'm a home-maker. The "neighbors" are actually my 6 children. I would love for my hobby to be keeping an orderly home as a blessing to my family and guests, but try as I might, every effort I make is thwarted by the little neighbors I can't kick out! Of course, I love my children, and only tease about kicking them out, but the struggle is real, friends! I have tried systems, training, rewards and consequences, but to no avail. My home is a home of chaos, and I'm losing interest in perusing this "hobby" with any more effort than enough to purely survive. Which is where I always seem to be: in survival mode. Is this the way we are meant to be--constantly in a place where we feel like we are two dips shy of drowning in every area in which we dream of excelling: home-making, home-schooling, parenting, marriage, work, our relationship with Christ? Certainly not! For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. 1 Corinthians 14:33 NKJV Yet here I stand. I can write encouragements to you and to myself, tips and tricks for decluttering and cleaning and maintaining the home, Scripture references, and kitschy sayings, but for the moment it won't change the way I am feeling about my struggle. And it won't change that I do struggle. And it won't change the way my house looks or the way my kids undo my every effort. So I will nurse my baby and quiz my kids on their Bible Bee passages, and continue to dream of a tidy, orderly, peaceful home, while I continue to live in survival mode, while in my heart desiring excellence.
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Crystalmommy & teacher to four daughters and two sons, & four asleep before birth Jump to These Posts!
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