Instructions on Repeat
Not only do I do the same things every day-hello laundry and dirty kitchen floor- I say the same things everyday as well.
“We don’t call people names.” “We don’t hit our brothers.” “We need to speak kind words.” “Keep your hands to yourself.” “When we have work to do we need to do it with a good attitude.”
It’s easy to think that I only repeat myself to the boys. It’s because they are young and they haven’t had much practice and they need reminders. But I’ve found I need reminders as well. I’ve found that I spend seasons of life repeating the same things over and over to myself.
Show up. Work hard. Be faithful.
Show up- to the Word, to the relationships. Work hard- with the laundry piles, with the reading lessons. Be faithful- when there’s no results, when you want to give up.
Show up. Work hard. Be faithful. Show up. Work hard. Be faithful.
When I sit down to write, when I speak over my own life, when I work on ideas for the Facebook video project, I keep coming back to these same topics. It gets a little frustrating that I never have anything flashy to say. I’ve worked halfway through this 100 Day Project and I realize that I could just cycle through these same thoughts. I have no big revelation. Nothing shiny or fancy. Just the same ‘ol, “do the right work and keep doing it.” Don’t stop.
But you know what? I think that’s what we need. I know it’s what I need. It’s what I need in 2018 when it’s tempting to chase fame or an Instagram following. It’s what I need in this season of mothering little children when I do the same work on daily repeat. It’s what I need when I think I will never make a difference despite the burdens on my heart.
It’s what we need when we’re used to drive-thrus and microwaves. It’s what we need when we show up to church every week and walk away having put in our time. It’s what we need when we’re waiting for instant change and instead we’re promised a lifetime of sanctification.
I need to keep soaking in Jesus and letting Him transform me (1 Cor. 3:18). I need to be faithful in living as if Jesus were here instead of me (Galatians 2:20). I need to show up and be faithful in my daily work (1 Cor. 4:2). I need to not stop doing the good I have to do (Galatians 6:9).
Most days that seems so small. It seems like nothing that matters. Who cares if I’m here doing it or not? But what things seem is not always what things are.
I can look back over the first five months of this year and I’ve changed. Maybe it’s not noticeable on the outside. My hair is roughly the same: I refuse to start counting grays. My face is roughly the same. I wear mostly the same clothes. But I know that who I am is not the same. It’s different in ways I never noticed in the day to day. Matter of fact, most of those days I despaired of ever changing any of the stuff that stared me down.
But I’m changing. Slower than I would like and it’s harder than I would like. There’s change because I put in the work and let God work instead of waiting on a magic wand to wave over my life.
If I write out of what’s going on inside me, how I’m viewing the world and processing life, then I guess you’ll find me here saying these same things for a while.
Show up. Work hard. Be faithful.
