For Sara

 photo by marysuephotoeth

When you scrub and clean and launder and cook all day long and no one notices.  When a little one with hurricane recklessness follows along behind you, meticulously undoing your attempts at setting things straight.  When the chaos of life with kids overwhelms again and again.  When you look around at 7pm and realize everything you have done today has already been undone.

When there is no earthly proof of the hardest job in the world.

When your efforts are lost on 1, 3, 5, 7 year olds.  When they complain about the dinner you sweated and slaved over in a boiling hot kitchen.  When you just want to escape and have no one ask you for another thing.


When you try to sleep but can't, the weight of the world on your shoulders.

That is the time, dear mother, to take a few deep breaths and look up.  There is One who sees, who loves, who applauds your daily efforts.  There is One who knows your struggles, feels your pain, who saw your home for the millisecond that it was clean.  There is One who thinks you are doing a great job.

And the best part of all is that He is with you every step of the way.