To Be Busy at Home

Things have been entirely too busy around here! October was completely over scheduled. And with mostly good things; visiting family, work related events, trainings, PTA, kids activities, church activities, etc. I don't know about you, but I get really cranky when I over crowd my schedule! Not only do I get cranky, but my whole household gets turned upside down. Laundry piles up, (not hard to do at our home), things get terribly disorganized, and let's not even talk about the bathrooms! And when the house is a mess, frankly, I don't want to be here and no one else does either.

Recently, I took a day off; I declared a "mental health" day, I forwarded my emails, my voice mail, and made a point to "check out". I was praying and crying out to the Lord about my messes; the mess at home and the mess that I was feeling on the inside. I asked Him what I should do about several situations-one being Sarah who was having a tough time. I said, "Lord, how can I pray for her? What can I pray to help her?" Titus 2:3-5 popped into my mind and it reads like this:
"Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, to be busy at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled." (Emphasis mine)

"To be busy at home", boy that phrase hit me right between the eyes. Funny, when the scripture popped into my mind, I thought it was going to say something like "children, obey your parents", but really it was Missy-be busy at home! That took a couple of minutes to compute. A few thoughts ran through my mind like, "How will that help Sarah?" and "That isn't very fun...." But, I asked! So, right there I asked the Lord to help me to be busy at home. And since, I have been asking the Lord daily to give me a heart to be busy at home. For me, it is really so tempting not to be busy at home. There a fifty-million errands to run, stores to be shopped for all of those spectacular bargains, friends to do coffee with , parks to be walked at, and of course work to be accomplished.

But, because the Word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double edged sword; piercing to the division of soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and discerning thoughts and intentions of the heart {Hebrews 4:12}, I was certain and am even more convinced today that what needs to be continually changing is the attitude of my heart. To go deeper; for me to be busy at home equates to being still. It's about making our home a peaceful refuge for the family and all that enter. When I am busy at home, I am more likely to dig deep into the Word and care about the things that matter to God. When I am running around like a maniac, I am being enticed by this world. There is an ever so subtle shift that happens in my spirit and I find myself chasing after things that don't really matter. It reminds me a lot of 1 John 2:15-17:

"Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father in not in him. For all that is in the world-the desires of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and pride in possessions-is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. "

In everyday life, it might look like saying no to the urges that comes over me, such as checking out my favorite store when I don't have a need to be there, stopping myself from surfing mindlessly on the Internet, having lunches back to back days with girlfriends, and even turning OFF the media with in the household for extended periods of time. And it saying yes to allow for God ordained interruptions, taking time to sit and be still, and rejoicing that I am learning to treasure Christ all the while folding my 5th load of laundry for the day.

Today, I am crying out to the Lord to change my heart and allow my heart to reflect His priorit ies and I pray that He will order each of my days. My prayer is that at end of every day, I will lay my head upon my pillow and know that I love and treasure Jesus Christ more at that moment than when I awoke in the morning. To the praise of His glorious grace!