Getting Messy

Lately my two oldest children have been begging me to let them do Play Dough. Aaaaahhh! I thought they had forgotten we even had that stuff. Whenever I get the play dough out it inevitably ends up in hair, on clothes and stuck into the carpet no matter what I do to try and keep it contained. And frankly, that in itself drives me crazy not just the clean-up that has to happen afterward. I usually have to sweep for what seems like decades to get all of those bright, cheery colors that are polka-dotting my floor up.

So whenever they mention the word, I usually ignore them, switch the subject and try and interest them in something else. What a great mom I am huh!! I just have to maintain some sort of order and adding a messy craft into the mix is not my idea of fun. I have three little boys that are making messes every.single.day- all day long! I have to sweep three to four times a day and vacuum often just to keep a semblance of "clean" in my home. It's either that or we'll all be walking through the kitchen and getting last night's dinner stuck on the bottom of our feet! It's not that I'm trying to be so anal, but that I have to have some sort of standards right?!!

But then, Isaac my 4 year old who is like a mirror, said to me the other day, "Mom, you ALWAYS say 'No' to play dough and we never get to play with it." Okay, all right, major guilt. He's right. It's always amazes me how God uses my children to convict me of my sin (usually selfishness) faster than reading through a Proverb. Not that I shouldn't read the Bible, but I daily get reminders from my growing children when I do something wrong (am short with them, or angry) and if I'm not quick to confess, then what am I teaching them about sin, forgiveness, confession and most of all grace? I'm teaching them that I expect them to obey and admit when they're wrong but that I don't live by those standards myself-making me a hypocrite! Being a Mom can be so hard sometimes and so humbling!

So we've been getting messy and as much as it irks me sometimes, it's good for me. It stretches me and reminds me that I am daily to lay down my life for my family. So I'm picking up my cross, cleaning up the mess, trying to do it all with joy, handing out grace, asking God to fill in the gaps and realizing how much letting my children do things they enjoy, even when it's an inconvenience to me, molds me into more of what God wants me to look like. Sort of like play dough.