When the baby won’t stop screaming

When ALL of the Leapsters have dead batteries

When you feel like you are up to your earlobes in poop

When you’ve had but 2 nights good sleep in 2 weeks

When your 2 year old ate all his breakfast…and yours too

When you can’t even catch a break to go to the bathroom

When your house is such a mess you have no idea where to start

When all you’re getting is sass out of your five year old

When you are cleaning up one.more.spilled.drink (despite the fact that the thing had a lid and straw this time)

When you feel all alone in your struggles

When all y0u really want is a hole to stick your head in

When you discover that the postal worker was too lazy to walk your package up your somewhat-inclined-driveway… AGAIN

When the batteries in the baby swing are dead. AGAIN.

When you have no idea what to feed your hungry brood for lunch

When it seems that all you’ve done is break up squabbles all morning

When you realize a little one has kindly mixed all the forks and spoons together in the caddy

When you realize a dream isn’t going to be fulfilled just yet

When the baby is STILL screaming

and When you have the nerve to look under the couch cushions…

PRAY FOR GRACE!

“…plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For He says: “In an acceptable time I have heard you, And in the day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. We give no offense in anything…but in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God: in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in fastings, by purity, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by Holy Spirit, by sincere love, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and onthe left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report; as deceivers and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold we live; as chastened, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.

2 Corinthians 4:1-10

Chambers says:

When you have no vision from God, no enthusiasm left in your life, and no one watching and encouraging you, it requires the grace of Almighty God to take the next step in your devotion to Him…in your family life, or in your duty to Him. It takes much more of the grace of God and a much greater awareness of drawing upon Him, to take that next step, than it does to preach the gospel.

Every Christian must experience the essence of the incarnation by bringing the next step down into flesh-and-blood reality and by working it out with his hands. We lose interest and give up when we have no vision, no encouragement, and no improvement, but only experience our everyday life with its trivial tasks. The thing that really testifies for God and for the people of God in the long run is steady perseverance, even when the work cannot be seen by others. And the only way to live an undefeated life is to livelooking to God. Ask God to keep the eyes of your spirit open to the risen Christ, and it will be impossible for drudgery to discourage you. Never allow yourself to thing that some tasks are beneath your dignity or too insignificant for you to do, and remind yourself ot he example of Christ…