beauty in the mundane

I wrote this almost a year ago and it's sat on my phone ever since. I took these photos around the same time as well, meaning to pair them together. These pictures where kind of "a day in the life of" sequence of pictures showing the ordinary and seemingly mundane events of a typical day. At the time we were living at my Mom's house and I just felt like we were living out of boxes, unsettled and anxious while also knowing that as much as I felt like I was waiting for life to change, my children were fully living their childhood… unstressed, happy as clams and just being kids living at their Grammies' house. They didn't seem to mind that much.

God spoke to me (and continues still) so much about being thankful for what I DO have and embracing what is currently in front of me instead of always looking for what I someday hope will be in front of me. God takes the mundane and ordinary and carves something beautiful out of it. The consistent repetition of the daily tasks can speak into the hearts of our children in deeper ways than seemingly big and grandiose moments. Being the kind of mom who is faithful to being in the Word, faithful to pray, faithful to her husband, finding joy in the little things, and being patient, kind and loving to her children are seeds that are sown in the hearts of her children that sprout life into their little souls. So here is a peek into our lives a year ago, from the early morning risers to the brushing of teeth before bed...

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 God seems to moves in the mundane of daily life... We just don't always stop to see it until time has passed and we are in a new season. But God is present in the whole process. If you read in the bible the moments that God comes and speaks, so often it's when someone was doing what they would typically do in their day... working, sleeping, walking, sitting. 

I'm a planner and to a fault I end up looking too much at what I want to happen or change instead of being present in the moment. I get caught up in looking to the next season, hoping for something better and take for granted what I currently have in front of me, only truly able to look at it fondly in hindsight. It's like looking at a photograph of when I was a brand new mom. In that moment of time I felt overwhelmed (some of it good, some of it not good) and had those days of exhaustion but looking back at that picture of a young Mama of one baby that is laughing and smiling, it can make my heart swell and wonder why on earth was I so stressed or frustrated? Look how sweet and precious that baby was! And now she's almost 10 and the oldest of four! 

Two phrases that speak deep to me right now are: 
"Gratitude turns whatever we have into enough."
"The things you take for granted, someone else is praying for."

I definitely don't have it all together. I'm a planner and life hasn't gone as planned. There is so much that I struggle with BUT I need to remember that seasons come and go. Life won't always look like it does now. There are moments in life that you look back on and remember how they shaped who you became. Moments that are seared in your memory that you never saw coming until they already passed. You don't know what each day will bring. You don't know, when you wake up each morning, whether God will interrupt your mundane and make it something magical or if it will be another day you quickly forget. We all have unforgettable moments but rarely see them coming. I want to live with hope and anticipation for myself AS WELL as for my children that God will meet us in the mundane and breathe new life and new change into our hearts and lives. You never know when one of your regular ol' days is gonna be a shaping and instrumental day in the life of you or your child, for the good or for the bad. Stay watchful and prayerful and hopeful that your mundane, their mundane, will translate into something so much deeper and beautiful in the years ahead. It might be a moment where your child sees you at the kitchen table reading your bible that sticks with them into adulthood and becomes a legacy to them of how to live their life... Faithful in God's Word like Mama. Maybe it's a moment that you are making a meal for your child and you're singing a worship song and years later they can look back and remember how Mama had so much joy in taking care of her kids. Maybe it's a moment that they made a masterpiece painting and they couldn't wait to show you but you wouldn't look up from your phone more than a second and they later look back wondering why other things always seemed more important to you. It might be a moment for yourself, when you are awake in the night at 2am with a crying baby, that you just know in that very moment that the Lord is so near to you and carrying you. Moments matter and yet we take them for granted too often. I'm so guilty of it. More than what you say, it's what you do that matters most. My prayer is that, in the daily duties that feel like I'm  in the movie "Groundhog Day", that the Lord would reach down and give me strength and endurance and hope and joy so my children can look back and see more of Christ in my life and less of my own stuff.

My "mundane" is something that others pray for. I can complain about the high noise level in my house or I can remember that there are people out there that would give anything to have a house full of little ones running around, and choose to see the beauty in it and see the true blessing all that noise is. I can let disagreements become poison in my marriage or I can remember that there are people that are without their spouse and ache to see them even for a moment again just to hold them, and choose to be thankful for the husband and marriage I DO have. Whether it's a relationship, a car, a house, a job, a marriage, a child, whatever is your mundane, others are praying for that and only dream of it. Be thankful for what you DO have. (Preaching to myself, yo!)

Life has already changed so much since those pictures were taken and those words were written (one being my boys' hairs! Haha! Them mops are chopped!). Time has a way of flying all too quickly. It's so important to remember the journey that the Lord takes you on. "Bless the Lord, O my soul,

And forget not all His benefits:

I hope and pray that my children will look back on their childhood someday and remember a Mama that was devoted to Jesus, to her family and that magic happened in the mundane. That beauty was birthed in the ordinary.

lovelove,

Abs