ARCHIVE ARTICLE : Written in 2018
TAP PLAY TO LISTEN
The temperature dropped ten degrees over the past month and there honestly hasn’t been a day in the last month where I haven’t wiped snot off of someone. The thermometer seems to always be in my pocket or close by as I make my rounds checking for fever so I won’t send the boys off to school with a temperature. The cough medicine fills up my usually non-cluttered countertops and the Kleenex box is usually empty from little hands grabbing six at a time to blow their nose. The rawness of their noses with the occasional nose bleed from the dryness in the air is frightening for my boys as they see blood as a problem giving me the opportunity to go through for the 50th time that blood is okay. It is proof we are alive!
The ongoing battle of telling the boys to cover their mouth, wash their hands and stay out of the babies face, as I feel like I am drowning in snot myself, is all part of our daily reality right now. It may sound exhausting and it is, but this is all part of the “nothings” that we do all day, in this season. When we are able to sit in it for a minute, take a deep breath for ourselves and reflect, it is easy to see that, in this season, these nothings are their everything.
The extra time for cuddles, the helping hands to fold laundry that actually extends it by an hour, the warm soups that fill the house with a cozy feeling of fall, daylight savings time that if you have children doesn’t feel like savings at all…. especially when it gets dark by 4:30pm, in Atlanta. The sleepless nights that are filled with rocking, watching chest rise and fall, and the Nose Frida nasal aspirator that helps clear all the mucus being overly produced. The pacing through the hallways as they wheeze in your arms, the thoughts that race through your mind leading you back to more conversations with God, praying for healing and eventually to thankfulness remembering He is in it all with you. It all matters.
It’s easy to miss all these “nothings” that we do, without even thinking. Your journey and your nothings may look completely different from all of these, but we do them without even thinking about them. Like breathing, we are just wired and created to do without having to think about how to breathe, but we just do it. Without having to think about doing all that we do for our little ones, we just do it. If we really slow down and think about all these little and big “nothings” that we just do, then we can feel, and see that they too are our everything. All of it helps form us into who we are becoming, who God knew we would become all along.
They are part of the foundation for our families being lived out in our day-to-day. It’s ministry that can feel unseen, but it is all seen in the eyes of the One that created all of us. It’s motherhood ministry. It’s fatherhood ministry. It is all part of our purpose. We are building trust as we are investing our all into our little ones and helping live out and build their foundation steady on the Rock, our Heavenly Father, that is all-knowing at all times.
Whatever your nothings look like, from drowning in snot, exhaustion, kindergarten homework, laundry, diapers, and dishes- carrying the weight of it all can feel overwhelming, but by keeping your eyes up on the One who created you for all of these so called “nothings” and reminding yourself that one day you will sleep again, your lens get much more clear revealing that you are not only accomplishing the day-to-day. You are in your now, revealing to your children the love of God and being prepared for what He has for your next. And in every stage, what may appear and feel like nothing, is everything and so much more.
“Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble” Psalm 46.1