Messy Life, Best Life

A trail of peanut butter and jelly handprints run the length of the kitchen cupboards and refrigerator door.  I do my best to see them as sweet reminders of the boy growing up right in front of me.  Granted, my thoughts don't always start out that positive and you better believe I'm already teaching the little man how to scrub these floors.  But I'm told I'll miss these 'messes' in the future and I definitely believe that.
Owen is turning into a toddler at a speed I can not comprehend.  I literally feel like I was just holding him as a newborn baby and now it's all I can do to catch him!  He worked on walking for a few days but quickly progressed to the speed Derek's mother always warned me about, 'the trot'!  This boy does not have a 'slow' setting.

Owen's vocabulary now includes correct animal noises for cows, dogs, cats, elephants, lions, chickens, horses and fish!  We were in the grocery store and he kept 'moooo'ing even after I repeatedly explained that, no, there were no cows in that aisle.  He insisted, however, and took the 'moo'ing up an octave so I investigated and, sure enough, found his cow right there on the yogurt container!  'Chiiiiz' means cheese and he certainly eats his fill of it and knows exactly where we keep it.  Other favorite words include 'Dada', 'ball', 'nana' and 'trkktr' (translation: tractor)  This little man amazes us on a regular basis.  Not to mention, he's also hilarious!  The shenanigans that go on between Owen and his father at the dinner table have been cause for milk snorted right out the nose!  MY nose, that is.
I love my life with these boys.

I also do a lot of cleaning in my life with these boys.  It's basically an ongoing, 24/7, never-quite-finished event.  Toys and books and water spills.  Every stuffed animal lovingly strewn around the bedroom and all my keys and pens hidden underneath couch cushions.  Mud tracked through the living room and dirty shirts that didn't quite land in the laundry basket.  And, I'll admit to the occasional grumbling as I scrub unidentified sticky objects off the couch or reach deep into the scariness of dirty socks left wrong-side-out for the zillionth time.
But at the end of the day, I realize how beautiful all those messes are; I realize, sometimes after a bubble bath and glass of wine, how much I love what I do.  We are all called to serve but the definition is unique to each of us and can vary greatly throughout the seasons of life.  This season of my life is sticky and a bit messy but it's absolutely the best!  As I pour out, give, serve- every time I wipe Owen's grimy face, every time I hug Derek's sweaty neck, I'm making a difference.  Do not underestimate the affects of your service, whatever that may be, or the influence of your faithfulness in the small things.  When you give, you are making a difference.

John 13:15 'If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.  For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you.' 

Maybe the biggest messes are simply, wonderfully, an opportunity for bigger grace!  
Isn't that what Jesus shows us repeatedly throughout history?  God uses the rejects, the screw-ups and the outcasts to lead His people and bring His message.  Too small, too loud and the motliest of crews are exactly who the King of kings works through to win the battles!  He bends His knees, picks up the crusty, calloused feet of the disciples and He GIVES, He washes.  He's commissioning them (and us!) to go out and do what He does, to love people in their mess and journey with them!  Maybe it's not about having a perfect, shiny, polished life (can I get an 'Amen!') but rather, allowing Jesus to work through the messes that are inevitable.  He uses those that are willing to admit their messiness because then His grace is so incredibly OBVIOUS!  Let Him transform the messes and then follow that example wherever you go!
When I face spills and laundry and words that didn't quite come out right, I want to see them as opportunities to give!  Give grace.  Wash the feet; that's what will transform.  Give time, give love, give your full attention.  There might still be a mess to clean up, green tea dripping down my shirt or half a bottle of Murphy's Oil spilled right there in the middle of Target, but what if I could see it all with new perspective?
Messes make me get down on Owen's level, messes make me realize how hard my husband works.  Messes are opportunities for me to follow the incredible example of Jesus; who deals with my messes every day.  Wash the feet, extend the grace; serve wherever you are, no matter how insignificant the tasks may feel.  Just do it, Bethel.  'Just' give, 'just' love, 'just' breathe before you respond to the disaster in front of you, and maybe- just maybe- we can begin to realize the beautiful potential these messes hold.