As I looked at the final contents of the dustpan, I was shocked at how many things ended up on the floor throughout the day.
And then I thought about this article on Power of Moms that has had more than 11,000 Pins on Pinterest and more than 20,000 reads.
It's called Christlike Mothering (by Rachel Hixon), and it starts like this:
I had just swept the final collection into the pile.”Pretzels, captain crunch, popcorn, cheerios, chips…” I spouted off to anyone listening. “Nope. I didn’t eat any of these things,” I continued, as I brushed the last of the pile into the dustpan.
But then it parallels mothers' work with the work of Christ:
They spend their life cleaning up messes for everyone else, messes that they had no hand in making.
You'll want to read the entire post so you can read everything in context, but I've been very interested in the comments that it has generated.
This has had a profound effect on so many mothers--including me.
I want to clarify that the post doesn't say that selfless service and cleaning doesn't also apply to fathers. And it doesn't say we shouldn't teach our children to be responsible and helpful around the home.
It simply suggests that when we do sweep or do laundry or dust or vacuum--we can do it with a pure, loving heart.
This is the quote that has been pinned most often with this post:
Mothering as He would. Not for praise. Not for recognition. Not for a
hug, a kiss, or even a thank you. Not because I can’t stand a dirty
floor or because someone coming for a visit might see the display of
animalistic behavior my children can exhibit. Not for any type of
compensation.
Sweeping up crumbs because that’s what He did. With a perfect love.I like thinking about things like this when I sweep the floor. Rachel did a simply beautiful job with this post.
Just swept the floor and the whole while grumbling to myself that I should just leave it for one of my children to do. Thanks for the attitude check! Maybe I'll rethink this task for today and give it as an offering to my children and the Lord. Now off to read the rest of that article!
ReplyDeleteApril, thank you for your sweet words. I had no idea this article had so much interest. The realization has been a great blessing in my life. Hopefully it will be in other's lives as well.
ReplyDelete