Just as in the heart of winter when small growth and foliage are completely hidden from sight because of the snow; so is it like our lives as moms, as we pour out our hearts for our families ~ most of what is done in love is hidden from sight. I have been reflecting on the ongoing challenge of daily and potentially discouraging, household tasks. You know the ones I am thinking of ~ dishes that get dirty all over again, floors that sparkle for only moments before there are marks across them, meals that are eaten in much less time than they take to prepare and then are soon forgotten, and laundry...that seemingly never-ending laundry.
If I sound like I am complaining, I assure you I am not - just deeply reflecting and choosing to turn my focus to the One for whom all of this is done. In fact, in Matthew 6, we are told it is good no one notices what we do in serving our families, because as it says in verse 4, "Your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." What more do we really need? The part I find the hardest in all the invisible investments we make in our homes, as moms, is that it is hard to measure what we have done, because the lasting benefits are unseen. I am a goal-oriented personality, and I enjoy a sense of accomplishment in seeing a job well done as much as the next person, but when we are home full-time, that is not something we have the benefit of enjoying very often, is it?
If we tried to measure our sense of accomplishment against the tasks that stay completed, we would probably have to utilize the word "hopeless" somewhere in the evaluation, wouldn't we? Every time I finish a Monday load of laundry for seven (which is a lot of laundry by my standards), I go through the same experience. I have huge piles of clean, neatly folded clothing that get dispersed to all the drawers and closets, and just as I begin to feel like momentarily I am ahead of the game - BOOM - I walk past the laundry hamper and it is on its way back to 3/4 full again. You would think I would have learned by now, but I still seem to hang onto the hope that somehow it will change and for a moment, there will be no laundry. Not in my near future.
This past week, God brought a new application to an old verse for me and it ties in so well with laundry, dishes, floors and the rest, that I felt I just had to share it. II Corinthians 4:18 says, "So we fix our eyes NOT on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." I realize this verse has many applications - but I am excited about the laundry application, which is this: If we try to measure our accomplishments by things that are lasting or tangible, we will forever be disappointed. God has called us to invest in what is unseen and I feel that, as moms, we do this every day! Investing in our homes, chores, children, husbands...most of that is "unseen"! But that is what Jesus has said will be rewarded, and it is also what counts for eternity. So let's see if we can fix our eyes on what we can't see and find new meaning to the same, old tasks!
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