Regina 
That right there…that picture you see, was the calm before the storm (smile). Last week just might have been the hardest ordinary week to hit since I entered this whole mommyhood world. To say I felt a little like Dr. Jekyll (I’m such a dork. I just spell checked Jekyll, smile) and Mr. Hyde would be putting it mildly. Christians call the experience the fight between the flesh and the Spirit. Truth is the fight is won already…Jesus sufficiently did that, but seeing as we still have skin on last I checked, we struggle. I am going to tell you why in the midst of my week gone wild I persevered in God’s Word…
Is it because 1. I am super mom. 2. I am a complete crazy legalist. 3. I am desperate and needy. Maybe a little of both of the latter 2 with a complete and total emphasis on the 3. and not a hope left for the former (smile). Did you follow that? Hm, I digress.
Monday began…well, I can’t remember how Monday began, let me think. Oh yes, fairly typical. Crack open the Word, make breakfast, start a load of laundry, pull out the steam mop…the mop sat outside of the closet poised and ready until Friday when I finally admitted defeat wrapped the cord up and tucked her away for a Monday yet future. Then, there was Tuesday…enter the stomach bug, to which every person that ever lived begins to shake their head in utter empathy at a poor sleep-deprived mother battling the stomach bug and fighting with every ounce of bleach and disinfectant under the sun and some pretty ridiculous hand washing protocols to contain it to just one kiddo instead of the whole bunch…(helpful hint: if all three of your children get the stomach bug ever…admit defeat…and drink their water, get it over with it…maybe a little fatalistic, but it’s realistic and helpful. Otherwise you resign yourself to two to three weeks of insanity as opposed to one…I have never tried this because bleach was my constant companion and no I don’t use bleach unless I am out of every other option and then there is no choice. You MUST win the fight with the bug….should I delete all this? Nah.)
Monday night. Sleepless. Crazy enters. Running up and stairs getting water and other homemade remedies googled at 3am. Nurse a baby. Soothe a sick one. Sleep is slipping away, I feel it…it is that week. It’s going to be worse than I think, much worse. You’re snowed in, iced in…the kids play with daddy til their heart’s content. The blindside is coming….
Tuesday morning rolls in…open the Word, that’s what I do. That’s how I live. No, you misunderstand…that is how I live. There is no other remedy for the week gone wild than the Word put in. There is no other. There is no other. I could say it for forever. This is how you make it. Between no less than twenty trips to the bathroom with a toddler who has never had the stomach bug and doesn’t understand why the cramping won’t stop. And you there with your stomach cramping with monthly pangs you know all too well. This is how you repent when you lose your temper, again…again….again…on repeat and you become the mommy who says I am sorry please forgive me all day.
Be in the Word…this is how you make it when you realize you have no compassion, not a real ounce of selfless love apart from the Father. This is how you make it when Wednesday comes and you get to live yesterday again and Thursday comes and you get to live Wednesday again…and you realize you’re a colossal failure at all of this when real pressure is applied and you’re flailing and tired, sleepless…and you’re trying to nurse a babe and a take care of a family and get food and keep hands out of mouths and praying you will make it…just make it that’s all…and you really don’t think you will, but every morning without giving up you read, you read, you quote Scripture with sick kids and healing enters weary souls, hope…. Your hope will never be deferred if you seek Jesus. It will always be ultimately satisfied.
Some people say when they get too busy they just can’t find time to fit the Word in. Others get overwhelmed and feel like it’s just the only thing they can put off. But I am too weak for that…too needy…I know myself. Without Jesus, I am a mess. There’s no worse disheveling than a soul out of sorts, because their hearts haven’t been first aligned with God’s. The week gone wild is sent on purpose. No fair! I know…but it’s a gift. A gift? Seriously? Seriously. It’s a gift, because it reminds you…you’re more needy for Jesus than you dared to think, and He is more ready to give you Himself than you ever dreamed.
Can you be in the Word in a week gone wild? Yeah. You can even memorize and meditate in one. If you don’t know what else to do grab one precious verse…even one will feed you…memorize it and live off of it. Better one Word loved deep than a thousand you never put into practice.
My Prayer for us….
Oh, Father help us, the weak ones. We are so needy for you (Psalm 86). You know we are Lord, I know it. We’re so helpless to be gracious wives, gentle mothers, and otherwise kind women without your divine intervention. In all our craziness we come to you…in our mess, in our weeks that we cannot ever hold together (we never could anyway), we come to you. Save us from ourselves and reserve our children for your work and your Kingdom. We forever love you. You are forever ours, in your strong, satisfyingly sweet name we pray Amen.
MEMORIZE365…This is our week. This is our week to show the surpassing treasure in jars of clay…it’s not us. It’s Jesus, the Jewel of Heaven. Let’s spend some time together this week…want to? We’ve got work to do…memorizing, meditating, mommying, mopping…
Oh, and about that mop…Chris just reminded me that he in fact just put it away this afternoon. Well, you know…tomorrow is Monday again anyway (smile).