Keep your yeast out of my dough.

Something's missing from all my photos this summer. Oh, yes. I neglected to take a single photo of my children complaining, fighting, arguing with me, whining, etc. You know, the stuff that was going on directly before and after I snapped the pic. Fortunately this photo required no actual smiles from anyone.  In fact, frowning was encouraged.  I think it works for us.

Don't get me wrong. There were many, many good times. Soooooo many! But how do you know sweet if you don't have sour to compare it to?? Oh, we know sour around here.

As the boys get older I notice the challenges that come with parenting are shifting. And this summer the challenge was discontent. When you have four kids you know you can't make everyone happy all the time, but when the boys were a bit younger I felt like we managed that a good bit of the time. Ice cream? We're all in! Extra TV? Sure! Swimming? No one says no. But I'm not sure I pulled off a single event this summer that everyone was happy about. There was always at least one kid with a frown on his face, arms crossed in front of him. 

In doing church and volunteer work (or life in general!) there are plenty of happy, supportive voices, but it's the one or two disgruntled ones that tend to stand out at the end of the day.  Why do we always get hung up there?  Why do we give the negative voices the better part of our ears?  Galatians 5:7-10 says,

"You were running a good race.  Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you.  'A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.' I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view.  The one who is throwing you into confusion will pay the penalty, whoever he may be."

The right thing isn't always going to make everyone happy and the enemy is out there, knowing this, seeing this, and using this to tempt our focus away from Christ.  But do not be discouraged, because those voices do not come from the One who calls you. 

I've learned from multitudes of unhappy feedback at work, at home, at school to listen, learn, extend grace.  And sometimes to politely just say, "Please keep your yeast out of my dough."

XOXO....Kelly

When it's time to stock up on glue sticks....

And let everything be lost in the shadows
Of the light of your face.
From "Captivate Us" by Charlie Hall, Christy Nockels, Nathan Nockels

I work for our church, which is all at once a most rewarding and most challenging endeavor.  I'm surrounded by some of the most creative, intelligent, intuitive and inspirational people, truly gifted in many ways.  I love it!  But sometimes we tend to lose ourselves in all that creativity and intelligence and inspiration.  Sometimes we miss the point.  Driving to church one Sunday morning I found my mind wandering to craft supplies and snack cups when the song above came on the radio.  I've heard it a million times before, but this line spoke to me (nay....SCREAMED at me) for the first time ever.  I wanted the morning's curriculum to be successful, but I was focusing on the wrong way of going about that.  Sure, it's nice to come into a classroom of perfectly stocked glue sticks and construction paper, but if I'm doing my job the right way what I should really want those kiddos to experience has nothing to do with the supplies at all. 

It's not just in church work that we lose the forest for the trees.  We live in a Pinterest-board society that celebrates the details all over the place.  Themed birthday parties, accessorized clothing, culinary presentations.  Once I fussed at my own sister for bringing the wrong color of cupcakes to a baby shower.  (I've apologized, but she still brings it up sometimes.)  And while the details can be fun sometimes, they are never the point. 

When I make it about the details, I am in fact making it about me.  My success at pulling something off or my failure when it doesn't go right.  I am making WHAT I'm doing more important than WHY I'm doing it and I am leaving God out of it.  I am forgetting that the most rewarding part of any endeavor is what I allow Him to do through me, which doesn't have anything to do with me at all.  Or my glue sticks.

Lord, let the WHY drive me, not the WHAT.  Let the details of what I'm doing hardly stand out at all next to the glory of who You are and what You're doing.  And when details must be tended and to-do lists must be checked off, help me to do it joyfully, with patience and kindness.  Amen.  

XOXO...Kelly