{A little note if you are new here...I am joining up with The Nester for a 31 Day blogging series.
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In the book of 1 Corinthians 14, Paul is speaking to the early church about the order and organization of their gatherings. There are a lot of thing in this chapter that are for a whole 'nother day...like speaking in tongues or women in church. But hang with me. If we can look past those hot topics for the sake of his concluding simple advice, I think we have a lot to learn.
The issues at hand were things that needed to be settled for the time being. There were some early church goers and leaders that were focused on the wrong things. Paul was laying out some simple guidelines as to try and bring the focus back on what mattered, worshipping God.
I think there's something very clear in this message that we as moms can really take to heart. There will always be junk in our lives trying to distract us from keeping our eyes on the goal.
And Paul tells us very simply how we can avoid the distractions...
Everything should be done in an orderly and fitting way.
But wait...didn't you just say yesterday that we didn't need to worry so much about keeping our house in order??
yes. I did.
This is less of an orderly house, and more of an orderly life. Less clutter, more chaos.
We can be a bit cluttered in our living room, but when our minds are cluttered is when things start falling apart.
We don't have to have perfectly organized days. But we need a bit of order and reason to why we do things.
If we live life completely on the fly, that's when distractions and mistakes take over.
That's when you get to the checkout lane and realized you forgot your wallet and either have to go back and miss something else during the day or worse even, you decide not to go back to the store. That's when you are running around trying to getting your house clean for company coming in 30 minutes because you sat around during nap time catching up on last night's shows.
Or, for goodness sake, you're sitting around one night and it hits you that you will have a newborn baby in less than 2 weeks and you don't even have diapers for her let alone enough clothes or even a true dedicated space for her to sleep.
"maybe we should have thought about this a little sooner..."
Little mishaps will happen. Careless mistakes will always be a part of our lives. Laugh them off and move on. But you will find that the more you take the time to do a little planning ahead, the less these things will happen and the easier your days will run.
And the less things distracting and bothering you throughout the day will leave your mind clear to focus on what really matters.
Love this post! I never thought of that text quite like that before...But, you're right, the principle is very fitting!
ReplyDeleteThis week kind of threw me for a loop with unexpected stuff happening and more unexpected stuff coming my way...This afternoon I felt really FRAZZLED. I stopped, made a list, and made a game plan for these next ten days or so. Tonight which is just a few hours later, nearly all of the laundry is done, the living room is spotless, I have taken care of some paperwork stuff, and a feeling of order is back.
Amazing what a little order can accomplish, isn't it? :)