It’s Only A Mess

My eyes are going bad.

What I mean is, not too long ago my eyes had only rose-colored vision for my precious children.  But now, it seems that I’m focusing less on them and more on, well, the mess.

Now, instead of quickly grabbing the camera when I walk into a room and find one of the four sitting there trying to cut bread into heart shapes using a toy knife, I see only crumbs on the floor.

Now, instead of enjoying an adorable moment for what it is – my child playing “water factory” in the bathtub and spilling water out of her cups onto the (indestructible) flooring – I sit there and calculate how much time and back-bending it’s going to take to clean it all up.

Now, instead of praising my young son for getting better at using scissors as he snips paper into microscopic pieces, my eyes dart to the broom and the urge to begin the clean-up process overwhelms everything else.

My focus is all off.  And I really do hate it.

I realize, obviously, that cleaning comes with the territory.  I have four young children…crumbs and drool and Legos and spills are everywhere all the time.  But dealing with the mess and being controlled by the mess are two different things.

I don’t want to be controlled by the mess.  I don’t want clutter to make me feel frantic.  I don’t want the desire for clutter-less floors to make me angry if they’re not.  And I definitely don’t want to look back on my years with my young children and realize that I have more memories of fussing over their mess than actually enjoying them…that I hurried them out of their play so that I could undo the mess left in their creative wake.

I want to be okay with taking a chill-pill, for just a couple of minutes, as I watch them play and discover and create.  I want to set aside the urge – and by “urge” I mean crazed obsession – to immediately jump in and perfect the imperfect.  I want to enjoy them!  To take mental and digital pictures of the child that will soon be a kid will soon be a teenager will soon be an adult.

The messes will continue and the cleaning will continue.  But, King Jesus willing, the cleaning will continue in a much more gracious, less idolatrous way.  In a way that doesn’t make my children feel hurried or like they are doing something wrong.

One day, the house will be very quiet and very empty.  I’ll have all the time in the world for the sparkliest floors that Texas has ever seen.

But for now…

may I honor King Jesus by delighting in my children.

It’s only a mess.

Do you struggle with majoring on the minors?
What advice would you give a momma for finding a balance
between delighting in order and idolizing order?
Please share!

Related posts that you might enjoy:

• Did They Feel Loved Today?
• At The Worst Possible Moment, Take A Picture
• When My Bathroom Is Cleaner Than My Heart

Lauren Souers

Hi, my name is Lauren. I am the wife of one fine man and the momma of four (huge) young children – three boys and one princess! I love all of them. I mostly clean up messes and feed people all day, and it’s really fun to write about it. Jesus is the rock of my family – we love and serve a mighty King! I hope you leave here full of hope that “tired” can be good.