Tuesday, January 15

my water bottle life

 
I love that birds are around all year for us to enjoy.  They flitter and flutter about, stopping to rest on a branch for mere seconds - then off they fly again.  To me, it appears as if they have some sort of bird attention deficit disorder.  It's sort of like me, and how I've been feeling since giving birth seven months ago.  



I get to a point in my days, where I think it would be nice to boil some water for tea perhaps, or phone a friend, but I don't get to linger in my longing thoughts.  Something or someone is always calling.  I feel like I have a bad case of mom ADD.  I may make a cup of tea, but get so busy that I forget all about it until the steeping tea bag is floating at the top and it's an hour later and the tea is now cold and strong.  But I like iced tea, so I make the best of it. 
 

 
Our life isn't neatly packaged, easy for the brain to rest and the soul to breathe.  Messes are inevitable.  Laundry is unbelievable. The noise of children often erupts.  Changing diapers of the three little ones is a full-time job in itself.  Dinner is sometimes cereal.  Frustrated tears flow easily, and admittedly they're usually mine.

 How does one's soul find rest in all of this?
 
I've needed to know the answer.  




I'd like some peace, please.
A little rest too. 
Sanity is a good thing, and so is room to think.
 
But what I most want and need in my days
is to be holy. 
 
To be holy is to be set apart for sacred use.  Not like that china teacup and saucer that sits out of the reach of the sticky hands crowd, rarely being used.  But more like that stainless steel water bottle that gets dinged, dented, washed and re-washed, muddy, and gritty. The kind that goes on all the journeys. The messy kind and sometimes the sit in the cup holder of the minivan kind.  I'm like that water bottle.  It's not always pretty being that water bottle.  Sacred use isn't always clean and perfectly planned.  No matter what it looks like from the outside, I should be most concerned about the water that flows from it. 
 
God is lifted high and is being made famous through me, right here within my home when the water being poured out of my dinged up water bottle is pure. 
 
And sometimes there are floaties.
 
They're as inevitable as my piles of laundry.  God gets rid of the floaties, replacing them with new pure water everyday.   
 
I am being sanctified - growing more and more like Christ in my walk with Him down the road He is taking me on.  To be holy is choosing to set myself apart from the things of the world, and clinging to God's ways,  promises, goodness, and that neverending grace.
 
So I'm a water bottle, and thankful to be one. 


 
 


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7 comments on "my water bottle life"
  1. Sending prayers your way :) I needed this encouragement to stay holy today, I've been feeling overwhelmed and nuts with working full time and taking care of 2 children and a home. I get to go see Ann Voskamp at a women's faith conference in March in Minnesota, Set Apart, it's called. I'm so excited...she's so encouraging to me. I'd love for you to come along if you're able, it would be a great refreshing weekend for us moms. It'll be a quick trip, I leave a late night Wed and get back late on Saturday. Let me know if you want more details.

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    1. Oh man, Misty! Would I ever love to go with you!!! It's definitely not going to work this go-round, but thank you for thinking of me... I pray you have an amazing, and grace filled time. Give Ann a shout out for me from across the arena. :)

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  2. Love!! Well done! He is purging the floaties from me, too, and someday we will be floatie-free! :)

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  3. YES, Amanda...right there with ya. Let's keep making the most of our cup-holder ride, and put another dent in our scratched-up, bent-up, holy-by-His-grace selves:

    "I'd like to make a toast....!"

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    1. :) We'll look back and appreciate these dents some day, won't we?

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  4. Here is the link if you're interested: http://www.setapartconference.com/index.html

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