Open Door

Jonah's on my hip, face streaked in dirt and sweat and we're waving at the last car making it's way down the driveway.  He wiggles to be set down and so I oblige and he runs off to join his siblings out in the yard.  I slowly make my way back into the house, thinking about pride.  How, on a day not so long ago, I would have let pride rob me of a day such as this.

15 kids ran in and out of my home today; 3 friends came into my home and saw me in my purest form - in a home overrun with children, dirty handprints, clutter and a bit of chaos.  They saw my worn furniture and messy bookshelves.  They saw the peeling paint and the dust on the mantle.

Our kids played.  They pieced puzzles and rode scooters and took turns on the swings.  Our kids stampeded up and down the stairs, yes, even in those messy bedrooms.  They made block towers and ate bagels.

We talked.  Made coffee.  Talked some more.  And maybe it was just me, but it really didn't seem to matter that our little rented house is less than perfect.  Or that the grass really could use a good mowing.  I don't see how the day could have been better, even if I lived in an immaculate mansion.

I'm moving on from being self conscious about my imperfect home and life.  God's gifts are sufficient for me, His provision perfect.  We want for no good thing and His gifts are innumerable.  When I give in to my perfectionist nature, I get in my own way.  Worse, I let my pride diminish God's graciousness to me.  This life that He has given me is enough.  This home?  A blessing, yes, even those bumped up baseboards that I never have time to clean.  It's a grace, every bit of it.  His grace.

When I get out of my own way, invite these friends into the front row seat of what real life looks like around here - I'm the one that ends up blessed. 

 It's like He knew, all along.


All I had to do was open the door.

2 Corinthians 9:8And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work