Handpicked by God

I am not just doing tasks. I am building a legacy. I am shaping God's kingdom. I am in the process of not only discovering my calling but that of my family as well. And I don't know about you, but it sure does make me look at my everyday tasks... even the smelly laundry in a whole different light.

Dear Lord, thank you that even when I feel overlooked, I can rest in the fact that I am handpicked by You. Help me to live my life for an audience of One. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

This is the end of today's Proverbs 31 Ministries Devotional. In it today's writer, Lysa TerKeurst, speaks of how, when she gets up, she faces the tasks of everyday life. It's daunting---isn't it? Every morning, getting up and looking at the floor, the toys tossed from one end of the house to the other, the laundry that needs washed (and folded, and deposited in the right room/dresser), the dishes that need washed, the mouths that need fed. The baby whose butt needs changed. But there has to be a reason. Lysa spoke about how, in her communing with God, her pause at the start of the day, He pointed her to the path that David had to take to become king. He didn't take the throne right away---it wasn't even assumed by his own father that he had the possibility of becoming king, he was just the youngest child. But God had in mind great things for him. To become a great king. To become the roots of a lineage that would lead to the Savior Himself.

And his character was built by one of the simplest of tasks. Shepherding his flock. Lysa didn't mention this, but during my reading, I did pause for a moment and ponder the fact that Jesus Himself is often called the Shepherd as well.

As moms, we have to take a second to step back and look at the big picture. And, frankly, it doesn't really even matter if you are Christian or not---this is true for all of us. As moms, we have a large place in this world. Bigger than many people even notice (Okay, I WON'T get on my soapbox here with the tangent I often like to go in.). Our kids' futures are in our hands. We shape how they will look at the world, how they will present themselves to the world, even how the world will see them. And it's not done in big leaps, or long lectures, or even the long, sitdown talks. No, it's in the small things---having dinner on the table, washing clothes, teaching our kids to brush their teeth.

And, of course, while we are here, doing God's work in teaching our children, it's also shaping us. How many times in church have you heard that He knows our very heart---our thoughts, our prayers, our desires, our trials, our (gulp) errors? And, as with our job as moms, it's not in the big things---the pronouncements from the heavens; the big lump sum of money, however we get it; that new apartment; that nice car we've been wanting for a while. No, it's in the small things---the small prayer for, oh, I don't know, help to focus on just our hubbies (that's how I got the sizzle sizzle in the bedroom. I really think that T still doesn't believe me that it was really an answer to a prayer for me.); the repeated tasks of taking care of our hubbies and our babies, our homes. Even if we don't like where we are right at this second. He's got plans for us. He's got things waiting in the wings---if we only ask, if we only wait, if we only trust in Him to get us there. In His time, and He will give us the strength to get through it, to wait out the tough times, to love when we want to bolt, to trust that these trials and tribulations are for a reason.

I don't know about you, but when it comes right down to it and I realize that He's there, to comfort me, to reassure me, to carry me through my tough times, I feel a whole dang lot better.

Yes, in deed...

Thank you God.