I’m wondering how my boys can mess their room up in under ten minutes. It doesn’t seem fair — they seem to have a gift for creating chaos. Yet, they tell me that they “needed that lone lego piece” for their set. That piece which happens to be on the bottom of the lego box.
And, yes, I’ve taken away toys.
And, yes, they help me clean up.
They still make the messes.
They call them — their sets.
So are they really messes??
Whose lens, whose eyes am I looking at the pile of toys arranged on their beds. Am I looking at them through the parent’s eyes — eyes that are fatigued, and not wanting to clean? Or am I looking at them through the eyes of my five year old inventor.
To him — my idea of a mess — is his idea of beauty.
Ironic, isn’t it? Somehow I knew there would be a lesson for me. I just knew it. God loves to teach me through my children. My lesson? That my messy life — not put together, with all my struggles and insecurities, and failings, and sorrows can be beautiful.
Beauty that is defined by the Lord. Not me. Or the world. Or others. But, Him, my Creator.
And gradually, what I perceive as a mess can become beautiful.
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17 comments
Love it…it’s all so true!!!
I love how He’ll teach lessons through the simplest things.
So true. Wow, I wonder how many times I stood in the door of my kids room shaking my head and missing so much.
Oh, I have such a hard time with this. I go through periods of peacefulness – where messes don’t bother me. And I go through periods of stress – where every mess, creative and beautiful or now – drives me crazy! Ugh. I think it’s all in perspective. Yes, looking at things differently. I try – oh, I try! to look at things the right way – not selfishly or strictly – but sometimes I lost perspective and just get mad.
I had a friend with grown kids once say, “Lynnette, I long to see that little sock in the middle of the floor. The only messes in my house now are the ones I make and I miss the kids that made the best messes.”
Love,
Lynnette
Praying right now!
Romans 8:31-32 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
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Beautiful or not those messes are still a pain to clean up! My girls are tear apart a room just as quickly and I swear it takes me three times that amount of time to clean it all up.
Love those cards! Do share where you got those.
As a Nana I have come to enjoy the kids more and it does not bother me so much when they have to get all the toys out and scatter them everywhere. I love to hear my grandkids play and make up stories. I wish I would have had more patience when my kids were growing up. Every moment is a joy we just have to open our eyes to see it.
Blessings
Janet
I am laughing out loud…this mother of five boys just loves this!!! And your truths from it are also great!
Oh, for our legos I have now put a sheet in the box, they put the sheet on the floor and pour the whole box on top of the sheet…for that one piece they need, then I can gather the sheet up and toss it all back into the box!
Now what do I do with a teen age boy who has electrical parts all over his room and making home made fire starters…or smoke bombs from tin foil and ping pong balls???….well just laugh and now that one day that room will be empty and I will want it all back!
Thanks for sharing…just great!!!
I love this post. I always have to remind myself to let the mess stay- it is their childhood and their fun and who am I to call it a mess????
Love this! Thanks for the reminder!
~Becca
Yeah for messes. Messy stuff is the hardest thing to deal with at least for me as a parent of twins, you want your kids to have fun/develop but then you want them and their surroundings to be clean. Like no puddle jumping when dressed up, no spilling when mommy just washed the floor, but being messy is what makes childhood beautiful and fun. Love that rivers game btw.
What a beautiful post…and so true!
That game looks like fun!
Continuing to lift up prayers!
Romans 8:33-34 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
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What a profound entry! Even as a Grandmother this spoke volumns to me. Love how God can illustrate such great lessons to us through the simplest of things. He’s good like that!
Blessings to you!
Thank you for this convicting reminder! I need to remember to switch ‘eyes’ more often to see what the Lord sees in any given situation, especially ones that to me ‘seem’ chaotic.
xoxo
It always bugs me when they don’t use toys for what they were originally intended…. it’s so, so – creative. 🙂
Thanks for this good reminder – especially on a day when my house is in chaos because we’re getting ready to move and it isn’t going to get any better till we actually move!
of course this counts!!! : )
i love how you share these lessons with us. it’s amazing what we learn through the lens of Christ!
so sorry i’m sooo late to comment… kelly is away so i don’t have a computer, but i paid my mom a visit so i could sneak online. : ) and although i just have a few mins, i had to visit my rachel!
Know that I’m always here praying!
Romans 8:35, 37-39 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?…Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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