I Just Want to Do the Dishes

: Created on Tuesday, 23 October 2012 15:24; Written by Nathalie

Elbow deep in suds and grit, with one child wrapped around my left leg, and another yelling my name from the bathroom....I glance over to the pile of disgusting dishes that have taken up residence on our limited counter space. The same dishes that were there the day before, and the day before that.

And I think to myself for a moment:

Some days, world peace seems easier than getting these dishes done.

My thoughts wander back for a moment to the things that have consumed my thoughts over the last couple of weeks. The way the Lord has continued to grow a burning desire in my heart to be part of what He is doing in the nations....to take care of the poor and suffering and broken and neglected and forgotten.

And then I am shaken out of my take-on-the-world coma as I realize both kids are now repeating my name over and over again, and I've gotten a total of 2 spoons washed and rinsed. (And let's not even talk about the 2 loads of unfolded laundry sitting on the living room chair we've all been weeding through longer than I'd like to admit.)

Since my year in post-war Kosovo, my heart cannot turn a blind eye to the suffering happening in other parts of the world. I am so grateful for that year. It changed my world view forever. It made me want to be a woman of action. It put skin and tears and voices to the "go, therefore, into all the world..."

"All the world" became much more than words on a page. It suddenly became a young woman telling me the story of her family's escape over the Balkan mountains as she drove her family at age 16 through the night, risking her life and witnessing horrors that no child should ever behold. "All the world" became the poor and desperate beggar children, barely clothed and many maimed by their own parents in hope that their disfigurement would cause more compassion and more money. "All the world" were angry men who put their trust in the hope of becoming a nation so that all the bloodshed on their patch of earth would not be in vain...so the lost lives of their children and wives, sisters and brothers...wouldn't be for naught.

In light of that kind of pain and suffering....in light of my eyes being opened to a real live world in need....some days the scrubbing toilets and making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches feels insignificant.

It's taken many come-to-Jesus moments to help me realize that "all the world" includes the tiny souls whose feet pitter pat into my bedroom each morning with shiny faces peaking just above my bed....whose small hands hold mine when we walk across the street....whose eyes shed tears when hurt or angry or misunderstood...whose voice calls my name to do for them what they cannot do for themselves....whose wounds I clean and bandage....whose affections I receive and they give freely. When I see these 2 children He's given me as "all the world", I can say with confidence: TODAY I JUST WANT TO DO THE DISHES. Because doing the dishes and folding the laundry and playing hide and seek and slicing bananas for their cereal and wiping noses and tears and clothing their bodies and feeding their mouths...

It all matters. It all counts.

What about you, sweet friends? Maybe you spent the night nursing a fever or rocking a baby who won't sleep or praying their bad dreams away. Maybe you're like me and you woke today overwhelmed and weary of all that is required of you.

Maybe your heart feels torn between your world and the world. Me too.

Take heart dear ones:

Some days we will change the world. Most days we will change their world.
Both are "all the world".
Both make much of Him.

I would love to hear from you. Weekly, sometimes daily, I dialog this through text messages, emails, and conversations over many tears and multiple cups of coffee. Many days I need to be reminded that motherhood is Kingdom work. And its OK that some days I just want to see the color of my carpet again.

How about you? I'm with you on this...and I want to pray with you. How's your heart today?