Piece by Piece

Getting young kids ready for school in the morning is a TRIP! Seriously! Every morning feels like an episode from The Amazing Race. How fast can you get from destination A to destination B meeting all the requirements and not killing each other?? It's probably not that way for everyone, or for really organized moms... but for me, a live in the moment type of girl, it is a crazy adventure! Now, anyone that knows me knows that I love my kids. I really do. I think they are amazing and it is incredible to see how beautiful and unique they are... And how opposite they are in their morning routine! Zoe sleeps like a rock. Waking up for her is one of the worst things that could ever happen. She moans and groans and pulls the blanket over her head. (I can totally relate!) Getting ready in the morning is a process. A long one. She likes to savor her breakfast. She likes to talk to herself in the mirror and make up songs and tell me about her great day at school the day before while I am trying to get ready. And then there is Rhema. And what is her morning routine, you might ask? The very opposite of her older sister. Rhema is a light sleeper. When morning comes, she knows it. She darts out of bed so fast that she usually falls over because she is just that excited. She immediately begins demanding breakfast. She shoves her breakfast in her mouth as fast as she can and runs to come find me for the next step. Usually the first one ready to go, Rhema will turn on the tv or run around aimlessly until everyone else is ready. And for the past few days she has started something new. She has this great lego set. It comes in this cool bag with a handle on it that she can drag around. And for the past few days, less than 5 minutes before we are ready to walk out the door, she drags that cool bag of legos out into the most inconvenient spot in our "high traffic" area, and dumps it all out. So I'm doing Zoe's hair, I'm grabbing bags and snacks and keys and such, I'm ready to leave and I turn around and go flying because there are legos everywhere. My first reaction is, Rhema, why in the world? We are leaving right now. This is not the time or the place for this. And she just looks up at me in her 2-year-old innocence, with this, "what?" look on her face. She has yet to learn where to play with her things and when to do it. I gave her those legos and I am so happy that she loves them. There is nothing wrong with playing with Legos. The WHAT is not the problem. It's just the WHERE and WHEN that's the issue. Most of the time we know the WHAT, but it's just the WHERE and the WHEN that's causes the big mess. 1 Corinthians 13:9-12 says, "For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." See, we only know pieces of the big picture. And putting those pieces together is tricky. And most of the time I feel like I'm carrying around this really cool bag of legos and I'm just not sure what to do next. And when I try to use what God has given me, sometimes I dump it out at the wrong place at the wrong time. And it's because in my imperfections and immaturities, I'm just trying to do my best with what I've got and make something really cool for him. And God in his great love and his endless mercy bends down and helps me pick up the pieces and put them back in the bag. And then he shows me little by little what to do next. And little by little I'm learning where the blocks go and how the pieces fit together. (Can I put major emphasis on the phrase, "little by little"??) In your incredible raw life journey, maybe something you said or did made a huge mess. And you look around and others are tripping over your legos that are spilled all over the kitchen floor. You know what? Pick up the pieces and put them back in the bag and ask the Holy Spirit what to do next. John 16:13 says, "But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and make it known to you." And along your journey, the huge mess that you see will, little by little, become something really, really great.