#SBMN2014

We spent our very first Spring Break in the tropical land of Minnesota.  And as I told the lady in the target check out line who saw my items and asked where we were headed, "we aren't going for the weather....but rather the company."   My best friend from college lives there with her little family of 4 girls under age six and a hubby.  One thing I was most excited about was the fact that I knew our girls would remember this trip.  And just maybe, become friends themselves.  The girls had a great time.  And so did the Mommas.  Many things came from our #SBMN (Spring Break Minnesota for those wondering....).  On the first day we were there, I would watch my friend mother her girls and wish that I could do it as good as her.  Only to hear her say later in the day, "I watch you with your girls and wish I was that good with my own."  Isn't that how we are?  Why do we do this?  Why do we compare?  And why do we not see the good in ourselves?  That last question.  Sit there for a minute.  Why do we not see the good in ourselves?   Do you?  Do you see the good in you?   The other thing about being with a friend who knows you.  Really knows you.  Questions get asked.  Good questions.  Simple ones.  Challenging ones.  For instance, while telling her about the woes of laundry at my house she says, "have you ever thought of having them put their own laundry away?  Hang up their own clothes?"  {Perfectionist alert}  Nope.  Not once.  Nope.   But maybe....maybe it might be a good thing to start?  Maybe the reason I don't is because it is more my problem then the fact that, "well they are just too young for that"..... Other questions: How is your heart? What scares you most with your adoption? What excites you most about the journey ahead? How do you meal plan? How do you connect with your daughters? Questions are good!  They cause us to pause and then to seek new.  
One of the honest reasons we decided to head up north was because I really needed a break from the here.  I needed to just step away from the everyday and break up the details of my day.  I needed to just go and breathe.  But what I loved most about this trip is that I stepped out of my everyday into the everyday of my friend.  I stepped into her detailed day.  I saw the loads of laundry, loading of the dishwasher, preparing a snack, unloading a dishwasher, switching the wash to the dryer, preparing lunch, loading a dishwasher, wiping the table (again), folding said laundry, wiping a nose, talking through an argument, hugging a sad sister, etc, etc, etc......the everyday.   I am reading the book, "Restless" by Jennie Allen and in it she tells us that,  "Jesus wants to redeem the everyday and turn it into eternal stories.  What is scary is not that we are stuck in the mundane, but that we don't see that it's eternal."   You see, the details of my friends day, my day, your day is an eternal story.  Mothering.  A story that continues and continues and continues and continues.  What we do today build into their story.  And how we tell the story will very well be how they tell their story.  And how their children tell the story.  And so on.  So no.  It isn't just laundry.  Dishes.  Referee.  Nurse.  Cook.  Cleaner.  It is an eternal story.  One that we have been appointed to tell.  You may not be a Mom.  But it is the same.  We all have things in our day that could be mundane.  But what if we didn't see it that way?  What if tomorrow we woke up and asked God to show us how to tell the eternal story in the right here and right now of my day?
As I sit here and type tonight with my newly painted fingernails, chai tea, and Rend Collective playing I want to remember that I am telling an eternal story.  My everyday may seem mundane to someone looking on....but looking in.....that is when we see it.  I got to look into my friends life for a few days.  And looking in, I saw her telling a powerful eternal story.  And I remembered in those days escaping my own everyday, that I too am telling a powerful eternal story.  
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.  And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.  For the joy set before Him He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart." Hebrews 12:1-3
May this be our anthem!   What would it look like if we threw off everything that hindered us?   Fear.  Shame.  Comparison. Selfishness. Doubt.  Stubbornness  The sin that entangles us.   If you are anything like me, then we both share a resemblance to Eve.  You know, actually entertaining the idea the devil plants in our heads asking us, "now...did God really say....." Sin.  And then shut down.  Entanglement.   But what if.  What if we ran.  And not just ran....but with perseverance.   Knowing that the race isn't one mile but many.   And check out what it says right after that, "marked out for us".  We don't have to wonder.  It is marked.  Your race is marked.  My race is marked.  It isn't the same race.   And what if we just kept our eyes fixed on Jesus.   Not on others.  Not sizing ourselves up or down.  Just fixed on Him!  Knowing that He ran His race well.  And endured great suffering so that we might inherit great eternal riches!  And when we get weary and begin to lose heart....fixing our eyes back on Him.  Remembering His race.  Remembering that the end of His race was a throne!  One that He sits on today. A throne of grace that we can approach with boldness & confidence to receive mercy (Hebrews 4:16). And remembering that our race is marked out.   So get to running.   Fixing your eyes on Jesus. Run like it is eternal, because it is.   Your story is one of many and it is essential.   Essential to the tapestry of His greater story.