Be a Servant....

"No servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.  Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them."  John 13:16


Yesterday my nerves had reached their limit.  I was about to blow!!!!  And believe me, I have blown many times before, but yet day after day it was the same thing over and over again.  One child would wake up early in the morning, go to the rooms of all the others, start a fight or two and I would then be awake due to a screaming war over "who had the toy first", or "she looked at me."  

I am not a morning person at all.  I think that it would be wonderful if the world would not function until noon.  I am a night owl.  I have been since my babies were born.  With the chance that  their blood sugars could drop while they sleep I find it hard to rest too soundly as I feel my motherly duties are still needed at 3 a.m.    So while they wake rested and ready to start their day at 7a.m.   I am saying, "give me five more minutes"

God knows I am tired.  He knows I am empty most of the day.  I try to remain obedient to what He has called me to do but there are so many days where I think like Moses..and I say,  "God are you sure you have the right person????"  I pour myself into these kids all day long and I selfishly say, "when is my turn??  When does someone fill me up???  How can I possibly give when I have nothing left to give???"  But just like He said to Moses ,He is saying to me,  "you can do this, you will do this,  I will be with you, if you let me"

I see the fighting and the fussing and I want more than anything for my kids to get along,  to work together as a team instead of against each other.  The oldest has a natural personality of "I am in charge!"  The son in the middle has a natural personality of, "when dad is gone I am the man of the house and I am in charge!!!"  The youngest is very stubborn and has a personality that says, very loudly, "go ahead I dare you to try and tell me to do something.....because we all know I am incharge of my own world and no one tells me what to do!!"

So when I awoke yesterday at 7am, to yet another fight, I knew that something had to be done. I just didn't know what. Screaming at them hadn't worked. Time outs hadn't worked. I even tried to tell them, "you will not leave your bedroom until I get up." That didn't work either. As I am sitting at the table, so tired I couldn't function right, I began to look over their school lessons for the day to gather everything I needed. Keep in mind they are still fighting and at times, even biting.  Then like a slap in the face I heard, "servant."  I thought, "um God how can I be MORE of a servant????  I am waiting on them hand and foot!!  They have sucked the life out of me most days???  "  Then it hit me.  We ALL needed a lesson on how to be a better servant. Especially me.


The bible lesson yesterday came out of John 13.  In those days due to the streets of dust and dirt when you entered someones house you would first meet a servant who would wash your feet.    In John 13 it tells the story of how Jesus,  the Son of God,  the perfect Lamb,  washed his disciples feet.  He humbled himself as a servant and with all of his heart and love, washed his disciples feet. 

So yesterday I got out a tub of water and made each child wash each others feet.   I even got in on the action as I washed the feet of my youngest.  As they washed each others feet I encouraged them to say,  "I am no better than you,  I am put here to love you and to show you ,and others around me,  God's love. I am here to do things for others,  and not to expect others to do them for me.  I am a servant"


We even went one step further and had my son paint Anna's toe nails.  And I let Ava paint my toes as well.    And even though they are not perfect, I will wear them proudly.

They found the activity fun and a lesson was learned by all.  Even me.    Jesus says, "Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.  For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" Mark 10: 43-45 (NIV)

Through out the day I noticed little actions of love. Although there was still arguments and disagreements I witnessed my son offering his favorite blanket to his sister who was cold. When it was medicine time I did not hear the usual "ME FIRST!!!" I heard, "you can go ahead of me"

To show God's love, we must be willing to humble ourselves and serve others, and not wait for others to serve us.  Jesus in all of his Glory did not build a kingdom here on earth and command others to serve Him.  He lived His life here on earth, giving his whole heart into serving others.


Are we serving with all of our hearts???  Are we willingly showing our children what it means to be a servant???  Are we serving them without complaining and thinking of ourselves.

Being a mother is exhausting, and most of the time not fair.   Some of us were dealt more in life than we think we deserve or can handle.  That is when the rest of us who weren't dealt such a hard  hand need to step up and serve with all that we have.   By doing this we can allow God to work through us to fill those who are empty.  And if  you feel like you can't take another step and you cannot serve the way you were called to do,  Jesus says, "Come with me by yourself to a quiet place and get some rest"  Mark 6:31  NIV

Skating Disaster

Last Thursday was the day that we had a "plumbing issue" in the bathroom.  So my husband was not in the best of moods.  So I weighed my options.  Going rollerskating with a 2, 4 and a 7 year old by myself, or stay home to observe a "non professional plumber" in action.  So off we went.  To our luck it was "Christian Music Night"  so that means it was only $1.00 to get in.

I took the above picture before the chaos began.  Here is how it all went down.

The whole way there I am doing what any mother does.  I was thinking up every possible situation where something could go wrong and then solving the problem in my head before we get there. That way this all goes as smoothly as possible.   

I wore a hoodie, not because I was cold but because it had a big pocket in the front for my money and debit card and phone and keys.  I repeated the order in my head so that it would roll off the tongue when we got there,  "I have 4 people to skate tonight , and we need 3 regular skate rentals please."  We get there and I see that they have something called a "skate mate." So we add two of those to the order as well.  We find a bench to sit on while I get the skates for the ones who need them. 

We are all set to go.  I explain that we are all to stay together and to help each other out.  No pushing, shoving and don't attempt a triple lutz on the first time around.  I, one by one, helped them down off the step.  Now let me stop there for a minute.  A step???  Really??????  Okay moving on.  Anna gets off the step, and immediately goes down.  I told her just to sit there for a minute.  I help Jaden off the step, and he immediately starts to scream.  And I don't mean, "aw he is crying"  kind of scream.  I mean this child is screaming at the top of his lungs as if I told him that a T-Rex was going to be chasing him, and if he didn't learn how to skate before the T-Rex got him, that he wasn't going to be able to come home with us.  I told Jaden that this was "Christian music night" and to please not act like this because I would hate to be judged on how I was about to handle this "situation."

  So now we have Anna on the floor (sitting patiently) Jaden screaming his ever loving head off.  And I reach for Ava.  I put her down, she smiles and off she goes.  Gone!!  I did not see that coming and based on the "situations" that I had resolved in my head earlier, this was not suppose to happen.  I look at Anna and say, "get up and try to catch your sister!"  She stands up and back down she goes.   So I think...."what would Jesus do"...so I left two behind to go get my one lost "sheep" to bring her back. 

We finally get all back together and we go to make our first trip around.  Anna is falling, Ava is showing off, and Jaden.....well, Jaden is still screaming.  He screamed around the first trip, around the second trip and then when we took a break  and he screamed through the break too. 

I suggested that we all go two more times around and call it a night.  I look around and see that someone has taken Ava's skate mate.  I see the little culprit and I am telling you this kid did not need a skate mate.   He is doing turns and "Mary Poppins Heal clicks" in the air.  I remind myself again,  "it is Christian music night."  So I decide to have a talk with this little criminal ......in my head.  In my head I walked up to him and told him,  "your lucky I know Jesus now"  I also said things like, "If you want to go to heaven, you need to return that skate mate to it's owner" and "listen here you little punk, your mother may not care what you do but I am telling you now.....taking skate mates that don't belong to you is wrong!!  Jesus said so,  it's in the Message Bible"  But, truth is while I had all of those pretend confrontations in my head, I looked up and Ava was 20 feet in front of me just skating along.  She didn't care, why should I?

I decide it was time to go ,as Jaden was still screaming.  On our way out Ava decided to throw a tantrum because she didn't want to go.  So she ran away from me.  What would Jesus do???  Well I don't know what He would do, but I ripped up that child and carried her out of that skating rink dragging Jaden behind me.  I load them all in the car and said to myself, "Never again!!!" 

I pick up supper for everyone, including my non-professional plumber husband, and head home only to find the bathroom totally disassembled and the toilet in the front yard.

I wonder if Jesus knew this was going to happen when he said, "in ALL things give thanks"  or if Thursday was an exception for us just once.......