Going into Battle: Monday is a Good Day

There are certain things about life I don’t particularly enjoy. Oh, you want a list? Ok. Babies not sleeping through the night. Having the contents of an entire room in the hallway. A pile of laundry in the boys’ room waiting to be folded. Crumbs under the table. Runny noses.

Guess what? Every single one of those is a current reality in our house. We’ve been sick. We’re swapping rooms (and it will be grand when it’s done). There are always crumbs underfoot and piles of laundry waiting.

Those things cannot be the deciding factors in whether or not I have a good day. If those things decide, my whole life will consist of bad days. I can’t get rid of any of those things, at least not permanently. Instead I have to decide what makes a good day.

It’s Monday morning now. I’ve got my coffee in my hand; I’ve stuck my nose in the Word. I’ve met with the God that made the universe for cryin’ out loud. What more could I need? If the God that parted the Red Sea, if the God that carried me through the month my first baby was in the NICU with a disease we’d never heard of, if the God that has met with me daily the past year and revealed so much of Himself when I had so many questions- if that God is in me and with me, do I really need a kitchen floor that doesn’t have crumbs?

No, I don’t think so. And that’s a good thing. If I’ve been learning anything, it’s that this life is a battle. Not with the kids who might (will) be fighting or with the dust. (Because really, don’t we all have better things to do than dust every day week?)

It’s a battle with an enemy that would love for me to be preoccupied with dust and squabbles. Because he is not distracted; he’s going about his mission of devouring (1 Peter 5:9) and blinding unbelievers to the light of the gospel (2 Corinthians 4:4).

So yes, today will find me taming the laundry and maybe some of the dust. I’ll break up the fights and cook the food and, by the power of God, tackle whatever else happens today. But I won’t forget the real mission. I’m here as an ambassador (2 Corinthians 5:20) making God’s appeal to the world in whatever part He puts me. Today I’m doing kingdom work (Colossians 1:13 and Matthew 6:33) right here in my house in this tiny Kentucky town.

I’ve decided that a good day is a day doing God’s work. It’s not about the laundry or the runny noses.