Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Bringing in the Big Gun



I clean the kitchen floor, only to have the kids come home with messy shoes. I get all the laundry done only to have clothes thrown in the hamper at the end of the day. When I work hard at being a good mom, I tend to neglect my friends. If I hone up my Bible study lesson in the morning before study time, my kids get cereal for breakfast. When I have lunch with a friend, I miss my husband at mid day. As soon as I start the dishwasher, someone puts a glass in the sink. When I go out with my husband, I leave my kids home by themselves. As I work on a blog post, the living room stays cluttered.

When I try to do it all I end up an emotional heap at the end of the day, yearning for my bed and quiet, feeling like a failure because I haven't accomplished what I hoped.

I can't do it all. Don't I know it!!

"We leave something incomplete everyday, whether it's an area of housework, school, work, friendship, ministry ~ because we are finite."

~ from The Hidden Art of Homemaking by Edith Schaeffer~

No one had to spell that one out for me!

But I have to keep reminding myself even though I am finite, my God, the One who lives inside me, is not. Though I can only do so much, my God can take my efforts and multiply them like loaves and fish. He promises to make something of my measly human offerings.

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. . .For when I am weak, then I am strong.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10
Can I get a WHOOP, WHOOP?! There's hope for us, people! We are not left to ourselves. Hallelujah, amen sister, and praise the Lord!

I can't do it all, but when I can't, HE can. And really, don't you think He'd do a better job anyway?

For more impressions of this quote, visit lori at I will take it Lord all You have to give.

8 comments:

Susan said...

Hey Tami,

Yes you can, "WHOOP, WHOOP?!" This was great...

Thank GOD for his amazing GRACE each and every day.

Blessings to you my friend~

Brenda said...

WHOOP! WHOOP! AND ANOTHER WHOOP!

lori said...

another "WHOOP, WHOOP!"
You know we ALL know it...the reminder has been good for my soul!!:)
THANKFULLY, our GOD is infinite....HE can guide us to do what HE wants us to do in a "days work!"

"He promises to make something of my measly human offerings..."
ohhhhhhh, that's good...
one for the journal....
Thanks for joining this week...I walk away every week with so much more from reading these posts!!
It was a blessing today!!
hugs!
lori

Heather said...

Whoop! Whoop! For God's grace! It's so needed and so amazing.

Denise said...

And yet another "WHOOP, WHOOP"! Boy did I need to read this post today!! I believe it needs to find a spot on my fridge so I can be encouraged EVERY day about the love and grace of our finite God!

And, by the way...a great big thank you to you and all the ladies for the discussion last week at Bible Study. The sandbags on my back are dropping one by one, and the load I have been carrying for years is beginning to seem much more bearable. I am so blessed by each of you - and this Amazing Grace we speak of! Love you all! Denise R.

Rachelle said...

Thanks for making me feel better, when I got to the end.......the beginning was depressing. My life in a nutshell : )

Anonymous said...

Edith Schaeffer, Elisabeth Elliott are two of my favorites for modeling Christ in the home. We cannot do things perfectly, and once we "give that up" we relax, more is accomplished and our homes are peaceful. I spent my 20's and most of my 30's thinking I could be the perfect mom to six homeschooled children, the perfect wife for my dairy farmer husband, and the perfect homemaker...etc. Things don't have to be "perfect", we will always be subduing the earth! So you stop doing it all by yourself, enlist help, live intentionally, and focus on the important and not the urgent. For me, showing/attempting to keep all the plates spinning was really an attempt to show others how capable I was....well, I'm 49. and no more attempts at superwoman...she doesn't really exist. Christ will accomplish through me what He desires....

Susannah said...

Oh Yaaaaaa. I needed that verse today Tami! Whoop!!!!!