Refreshing

Proverbs 11:25 “… whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.”

Tonight I had a meeting with the worship arts team at church. I always love connecting with these beautiful and creative people. This gathering seemed particularly moving. The way our leader guided, the stories that were told, the prayer time at the end – these were all meaningful moments. In the course of the night, a friend of mine mentioned the above verse. As they (who is they??) say, scripture comforts the disturbed and disturbs the comfortable. Or, I believe, it should.

My version of this verse lately has gone more like this: whoever refreshes others makes lists of all they’ve done, expects many thanks and accolades, and spends many hours peeved that no one else seems to be doing any refreshing. Uh, oops.

Last night I was feeling exceptionally ticked off that my work at keeping house and keeping peace seemed to be (1) endless and (2) without thanks. I felt that as an evil trick, my not-so-innocent McBabies must be secretly pulling linens out of closets and scattering them about, dirtying dishes while I’m not looking, and dipping clean clothes in mud just for the fun of having it washed. Are these things true? No, but who wants the fact and logic police when throwing a pity party? In all reality, I am thanked often by my kind-hearted husband… he was just gone all day. Good thing – forced me to bite my tongue. This is part of the deal. Delivering children is messy. Raising them is messy. Why should I expect that they’re not messy too?

My late evening thoughts bring me to thinking about all of the gifts of today. At one point, McBaby #1 and I were sitting on the couch looking at our favorite cookbook (thanks to our dear friends S & C for America’s Test Kitchen cookbook!!) to decide what cupcakes to make today. They were just-for-kicks-and-giggles-cupcakes. Gift. I looked as my little girl pondered on the pages and thought about what would be the tastiest and most fun to make. The look in her blue eyes above the smile on her tiny mouth on her precious heart-shaped face as a part of her old soul made me pause and tear up. Gift. I asked her if we could pray and I stopped right there and prayed aloud thanking God for her. Gift. Thanking God that I can be home with her for these little moments. Gift. Thanking God for who He is making her. Gift. And this, friends, has certainly left me feeling refreshed. As did the yellow cupcakes with pink icing…

(special thanks to Mamaw and Grampy for McBaby #2’s new tshirt)