Mess & Five Minute Friday

Five Minute Friday:

Or Saturday, or Sunday or Monday. 

This week the topic is mess.   We can all relate.  It can be in our heads, our homes and our hearts, but God had doesn’t want to dwell on it.  In fact sometimes He just orchestrates the situation so that we can’t.   What we do on a Five Minute Friday is to write raw for five minutes and then we post it and link up over at Lisa-Jo Bakers.  This time it just so happens that Mum has also written a post on mess, though not specifically for Five Minute Friday, so I've included it underneath.

Go:

My week has been an omnishambles, or you might better understand if I say it has been a mess. Entirely stressful and depressing as I received multiple rejections of my rental house applications due in part to miscommunications on various persons behalves.  After one such I climbed into my car with my 19 year old sister, after dumping little Erin in her seat and catching up a part of the form that had flown under the car. 

I was fuming with the annoyance of it all, especially as Erin decided she didn’t like to be ‘dumped’ in her seat and perhaps sensed the upset of her mother.  I could not understand why we could not simply find a rental to move into.  Our finances were in good order and now it did not seem to be straight rejections we were receiving but silly blockages that were causing us to miss out on the houses or perhaps divine intervention. We had been claiming that God would give us the right house in the neighbourhood He needs us to be in and at the right time.

And here was Erin howling her little lungs out and the only thing that would calm her were the words of her favourite song, ‘we have come to give You glory, we have come to give You praise . . . bless the Lord O my soul and let all that’s within me shout out, shout out . . .’ (United Pursuit)

Left in the moment I would have like to fume but I half wondered if an impish angel was sitting beside my baby pinching her so as to scream and I would have to sing out the song to lift my eyes off myself and my mess.

Stop

(my picture is of the chalkboard I went and bought after my mess meltdown to write truths.)

by Kath
This is the stuff that drives me crazy

This is the stuff that's getting to me lately

In the middle of my little mess

I forget how big I'm blessed

This is the stuff that gets under my skin

But I gotta trust You know exactly what You're doing

It might not be what I would choose

But this is the stuff You use.   

Lyrics by Francesca Battistelli

 

Do you ever get overwhelmed by mess?

Depressed?

No end to the work?

Does it drive you crazy?

 

It drives me crazy, some days, if I let it. If I start speaking out how much there is to, start whinging, even just to myself, that it never ends, that it's all too hard, then it becomes even harder.

God uses the mess, the constancy, the work, to shape my character. He has taught me that whinging makes it harder; that focusing on it makes it seem bigger and bigger; but that doing it with a good attitude makes it go faster, makes it easier.

He's taught me, too, about doing it grateful, remembering that for many it isn't a reality, because they aren't blessed with children or a houseful of people to live with.

Perhaps one day my house will be very tidy and there won't be lots of dishes and cups to wash up, a highchair to wipe down, nappies to change, lots of clothes to fold, toys to pick up, mending or ironing to conquer, endless questions to answer, etc, etc, etc. And while that will be nice and easy, I suspect it will be sad too, because it will mean that my house is empty, empty of people.

So, if you're drowning in stuff - stuff to mend, wash, wash up, pick up, tidy up, put up - and drowning in people, big or little, be happy. Focus on the good and noble and lovely and admirable, and let Him shape you.   They leave all too soon, and after all, it's just stuff!!

....whatever is true, whatever is worthy of reverence and is honorable and seemly, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely and lovable, whatever is kind and winsome and gracious, if there is any virtue and excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think on and weigh and take account of these things [fix your minds on them]. (emphasis mine) Philippians 4:8, AMP.