My typical mornings tend to look something like this (and perhaps you can relate):
The alarm goes off way before the sun comes up, I turn it off once (ok maybe three times), only to be awakened minutes later to a preschooler, one inch away from my face, asking me to come build a Lego firehouse, complete with separate sleeping and dining areas.
Maybe tomorrow’s the day he’ll finally present me with my Mother of the Year award.
I stumble across the hall to his room and try to build something worthy of being printed in the Lego magazine. Unfortunately, all I can muster up the energy to build is, ironically, a Lego bed.
Now my oldest is up, and everyone wants breakfast. Again. Didn’t I just make you all breakfast yesterday?
The hair brushing, outfit picking, dishwasher loading, laundry folding, carpool driving, counter wiping (and other kinds of wiping), lunchbox packing, well it can all seem a little mundane. And the more time I spend on various social media outlets, the more mundane and small my impact starts to feel.
I start to convince myself that it’s not enough because;
- I don’t work on behalf of orphans worldwide
- I’m not a radical bible teacher preaching the gospel to thousands
- I don’t have passionate vocal power to touch nations through my worship.
The list goes on and on and I’m sure you have a few examples of your own that you could insert here, but when I have days like this, I try to think of Ecclesiastes 9:10 which tells me,
“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.”
The bible is full of times when God used small beginnings to accomplish mighty things.
Think about some of the greats in the Bible: Abraham, David, Joshua, Gideon, Moses – they spent most of their lives doing normal things, like making a living, tending sheep, and being a faithful follower of God.
David was likely still a teenager when he was chosen by God to lead His people. David was a shepherd, the youngest boy in his family. The youngest children were assigned all the menial tasks. It was from this place of humility that God chose David to be King. (1 Samuel 16)
Gideon was a young, timid man who was found beating wheat in the wine press to escape the attention of the Midianites. Then the Angel of the Lord visited Gideon declaring him to be a mighty man of Valor (Judges 6:12). Certainly if you read Judges 6:8, you would see that Gideon started out being anything but that.
Friend, as you can see it was in the quiet, in the mundane, in the small things that God was growing them, training them and developing them for the work He had planned for them.
As Ecclesiastes 9:10 instructs, we must use our hands to care for those we love the most, those whom God has entrusted to us to nurture and to raise for His glory. No, maybe it doesn’t seem fulfilling as we make the thousandth crustless peanut butter and jelly. And maybe it doesn’t seem satisfying as we shuttle our children around town, driving the same path 1000 times.
But can I tell you something today? God sees us in those small moments, and He abundantly blesses us for it. Please realize today that God’s intense and tangible spirit in our lives is all the assurance we need.
We must escape from the common error of measuring the importance of things by their size.
Remember that 6am Lego wake up call? Well, it may be helping to shape a future architect. And all those peanut butter sandwiches? They are growing a strong active child ready to fulfill their God given mission. And all the long drawn out bedtime routines, when they ask for one more bedtime prayer? Those may someday lead to their salvation.
So today, we will continue to brush all the hair, pack all the lunches, sweep up all the Cheerios and wash all the faces, because God sees our full potential, not just our current position in the carpool line.
Only He can transform our small and mundane into mighty and meaningful.
