Been Thinking….

Last month when I was in Augusta visiting my family, we stopped in to see Meme.  She is my mom’s mom and lives in a nursing home now.  She is doing fairly well, but definitely needs the help that they provide.  My mom gets to see her about once a week.  I have seen her the last few times I have visited, and I am glad.  She is kind of hard to talk to now.  She doesn’t always remember who you are talking about and her mind seems to go in neutral with the kids moving all around and four adults taking over her room.  I ask her questions, but the answers are usually pretty short and to the point.  This past visit everyone left the room to head back to the car, and I stayed back a few seconds to hug her and tell her goodbye.  I also wanted to touch her and look at her and let her know that I love her.  I held her hand and it was so soft.  I rubbed it and told her how soft her skin was.  She just laughed a little and said, “Well, I put lotion on every day.”  My mom says that there’s a stockpile of lotion somewhere because my Meme always asks her to bring some when she comes to visit.  Her room mate piped up and said, “We don’t wash dishes and scrub floors or do laundry anymore, so our hands stay nice.”

That was sobering for me.  I often times look at my hands and think how rough they look–dry, unmanicured, uneven nail length, and on and on.  I also never want to spend the money on a manicure because it just messes up after a couple of days.  But after that conversation I have decided to be thankful for my unkept hands and be thankful that I am physically able to do all that has to be done to keep up with the house and with the sweet bodies that make all the messes that live here.  heehee.  I have also started to use lotion more regularly.

Just thought I’d share.

And here is a quote from girltalk blog that I love!  Another great reminder that what God has purposed me to do as a wife to Josh and mom to Ruby, Molly, & Mack, right here and right now IS IMPORTANT.  Carolyn Mahaney wrote this about a move she and her husband were making:

Of the more than 8000 days I spent in this home, there were a few dramatic ones: the day I announced to CJ that “surprise, you’re going to be a father again!” or the day Kristin fainted and we had to call the ambulance, or when Mike serenaded Janelle outside her window at 6am, or when Nicole returned from the hospital after life-saving surgery.

But most of my days looked pretty much the same.

I got out of bed each morning so that I could do everything I did the day before.
I washed the dishes so they could be dirtied again.
I ironed the clothes so they could be worn and wrinkled again
I wiped noses so they could run again.
I picked up toys so they could be played with again.
I mopped the floor so mud could be tracked on it again.
I cooked meals so that I could go to the grocery store again.
I made beds so they could be slept in again.

Some days I wondered: if I do all I do, only to have it undone, am I really doing anything?

Today, as I pack up my home in June of 2008, I can see the answer more clearly than I did in February 1986. Each of my daughters is married to a wonderful, godly man, Chad will be a sophomore in high school this fall, and we’ll welcome our seventh grandchild at the end of August.

I realize that all of the mundane, repetitive days were actually full of significant, enduring work. A home was being built. A family was being knit together. Four souls were being shaped for eternity.

This home has spawned three more homes where the same tedious yet momentous work goes on day in and day out. And God willing, many more homes will one day be built, day by day, so “that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior” (Titus 2:9).