Kinsey and Haylee trashed (what we commonly refer to as), the "girls' room". It's a combination guest room for when my son's girls come from Texas for the weekend. Kinsey decided to carpet the bedroom with all the books on their bookshelves. Then Haylee cleaned out the closet and made it into a store (so all the toys in there came out onto the floor, too). They made a tent out of the bunkbeds. Then they took a big box and headed to the kitchen to shop for merchandise for their bedroom "store". Suffice it to say, "the girls' room" looks like an Oklahoma tornado blew through. When I told the girls that they needed to clean up their messes before their mom came, they both pointed to the other as the one to blame and said the same thing: "I don't feel like it."
I understand. I make lots of messes and don't feel like cleaning them up. However, sometimes we gotta do what we don't wanna do.
I kinda think our world is like "the girls' room". We all like to play in it, but when we make a mess of it, we don't wanna clean it up. Our lives are like that, too. We do our own thing and saturate ourselves with those things which please us, but when we start carrying box-loads of kitchen stuff into the bedroom, we discover it's not quite as much fun to carry it back. We yank all the order from our lives and spread it out in places it doesn't belong and then we don't want to bow down and get things straight. We, like Kinsey and Haylee, want to blame the others for the mess we make of things. We just don't feel it.
It takes too much effort to sort through the cause and root of a problem. It takes too much time to undo what we've done. It looks like a disasterous mess and we would rather just move to another room and forget about it. We don't want to accept responsibilty for our part in the mess we make. It's easier to point fingers, walk away and move on to another room. The only problem is, if you haven't changed the way you play, you wind up making a mess of the next room, too. Therefore, sometimes you gotta do what you don't feel like doing.
My daughter came over and helped the girls lug the "groceries" back into the kitchen. She helped them place the books back on the shelves. She guided them in putting the toys back in the closet, and straightening up the living room. She didn't do it all for them. But she let them take her yoke upon them and carried the heaviest part of their load. Just like Jesus does for us.
"Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." Matthew 11:29
