As A Pendulum Swings

This concept has been hard pressed on my heart for a couple of years now and I don't want it to go unexpressed.   I hope I can easily explain this visual about trying to stay Christ-centered!

As a non-believer in Christ, we all begin on one side of a swinging pendulum.  Lost, blind, deaf, a sinner in need of a savior and yet already loved deeply by Christ, as He patiently waits for us to come His way.  Satan is just fine with us hanging in the balance uncomfortably in this position.  He doesn't have to do too much to make us trip and fall because we are usually wrapped up in own own selfish desires, vainly attempting to satisfy the insatiable flesh.

When we finally accept Christ as our savior and feel the weight of the burden of our sin lifted as it is forgiven and the inexpressible gratitude for the hope of eternal life we begin to look around and feel compassion for the lost.  As we center ourselves, mid-swing, in Christ's perfect love, there is no judgement on others as we ourselves were just as deaf and blind as they.  Now given to us is a wide-eyed window to a blameless heart that wants to relieve others of their guilt and condemnation by pointing them to Christ's perfect love.  Seeing clearly that sin is the symptom of a love-sick heart that Christ wants to heal.

Unfortunately, this person who was previously ignored by Satan has now become a prime target for harassment because they are getting the truth out.  Naturally as a believer we want to know Him better so we learn more and more about God and His Holy Word.  Slowly,  the momentum builds  and we find ourselves unhappily on the other side of the pendulum's swing.  Knowledge puffing up, judgement and pride begin to separate us from others.  The lost and even other Christians fall under our scrutiny as Satan whispers in our ear unloving words. Somehow we forget that it was nothing we did ourselves but Christ's sacrifice on the cross that saved us.  We foolishly begin to compare ourselves to others, monitoring our christian walk and others, often forgetting that we are all sinners in need of a savior everyday!

It is our goal as Christians to stay Christ -centered and balanced by remembering we are no better than our very worst forgiven sins.  We are all in need of love and acceptance and compassion.   Reaching out to the lost because we want to lift their burden and introduce them to the love of their life!

Where is my Alice?

Sometimes I wish our "Brady Bunch" had our own Alice!  Someone to do the cooking, cleaning and laundry.  Oh, I just realized we do, ME!  I am the "Alice" in this modern day family.  So, does that mean our "Brady Bunch" needs a Carol?  A cutely composed and coiffed mother that has endless creativity and caring yet clever comebacks.  I am finding it difficult to be both Carol and Alice.  Anyone else?  If my house is clean, lawn mowed... then I look a fright!  If I have exercised, showered, blah blah blah then my chores haven't been completed but, dinner might be on the table.  Until about five years ago, I found it difficult to fall asleep unless the house was relatively picked up.  Most certainly, the kitchen HAD to be cleaned just like the Bradys.

Fast forward to Brady and I watching a different type of TV show decades latter and you find me still daydreaming about how to be the perfect wife, mother of five and housekeeper.  Several years ago when Brady and I discovered the DVR we began recording CSI (that was when there was only one CSI).  They had a particularly plot thickening serial killer on the lose in Las Vegas that would create miniature models of his crime scene leaving it for them to find at the crime scene to "help" them solve the murder.  One evening after watching that intriguing episode, I had what I though was a brilliant idea!!!  To create a miniature model of my own home,  identical down to the leopard print throw pillows.  Then, I could actually go to sleep easily knowing my house or at least a miniature replica of it was "clean" and picture perfect. No scratches on the coffee table, no marker on the wall, no spots on the bathroom mirror!   As I was enthusiastically sharing this epiphany with Brady he, choosing his words carefully, let me know that I might be perceived as just a little crazy for creating another model house just like the one we live in just to sleep peacefully at night.

 Okay, okay, I won't become psychotic over my home, I get it!  I guess it is time for a brainstorming session...  uh let me think really hard, oh I got it, we hire a house keeper!  Hallelujah!  That was a wonderful idea!!!  Especially since the boys were so little and Brady and the girls were so busy!  Unfortunately, since I didn't work outside the home and since I feel guilty pretty much all the time (I am the person who feels guilty if I'm cleaning because I should be playing with the kids and when I'm playing with the kids I feel guilty because I should be cleaning the house).  I ,of course, began to feel guilty about having someone else clean our house.  The biggest reason I felt guilty was I thought I was doing a disservice to my children.  I couldn't help but feel I was possibly setting a precedent that the economy or various other circumstances just couldn't be guaranteed for my would-be adult children in years to come.  I want my daughters to have the freedom to fall in love with whomever they want "for richer or poorer", knowing they have fully experienced the icky ins and time consuming outs of cleaning a home.  That they would never resent their husband for not maintaining the lifestyle they had grown too comfortably accustomed.  I want my sons to know how to clean a home as well.  I hope and pray their wives will thank me for this one day because to be quite honest it would be so nice to have some professional  help around here.  It is a sacrifice that I pray will have a pleasant long term return for all of us.  I haven't let my kids know that this is why we don't have paid help around here.  It is just us,  the ones who live here cleaning up after ourselves. However,  one day they will read my blog and know.  They will know that I loved them enough to make them work and loved them enough to let them see their mama work!  Also, they get to hear me say over and over again, "if you make a mess you clean it up,"  I hope that sinks deep into their soul and carries them through life's messes.   I guess we don't need an Alice after all!