For When This Is All There Is

Is this it? Is this all there is? Laundry, dishes, and cleaning toilets; wiping bottoms, messes, and hand-rinsing poopy underwear before tossing them into the washing machine -- day after day?

And what's more repetitive than laundry and dishes is disciplining and training hearts and minds that naturally bend toward self.

The job is never complete and the affirmation can seem non-apparent.

Yet, when I settle into this – this right here – the hard, the mundane, and the repetitive;

when I accept it as my sacrifice, it becomes my joy.

And through the hard and mundane, it's the snuggles, giggles, and kisses goodnight; playfulness, laughter, and kindness that are my sources of affirmation, as a mother.

And I delight in them.

I delight in watching  my children splash, squeal, and cannon ball right into the air pumped pool, on a hot summer day.

I delight in setting out chicken tenders and corn dogs for when they get hungry and Popsicles stashed in the cooler with ice.

I delight in creating opportunity for my children and watching them grow.

I delight in the moments I can sit back and just inhale who they are and who I see them becoming.

I receive these affirmations daily when I open my eyes to see.

And if I ever find myself wanting more of something, I've learned to look no further than what is right before me. I've learned to travel, not further, but deeper to see all there is – seeking deeper love, deeper gratitude, and deeper joy in the here and now.

Because this is it.These are the moments that matter.

Because at the heart of washing clothes, dishes and bottoms is devotion, and at the heart of discipline and training is belief.

And that is all we ever really need.

.Sharing with Finding Heaven, The Better Mom, The Wellspring,  Graceful, A Pause on the Path,  Works for me Wednesday, Women Living Well, Getting Down with Jesus, and Raising Arrows