Discipline

It's 8:10 pm. What do you think I'm doing on an average night?

I'll let you ponder that for a second while you look at the funniest family picture ever. Kite flying.

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My least favorite chore in the house is washing dishes. Don't know why, other than my mom hates dishes and so do I. Love baking, love cooking. Love a clean house. Hate washing dishes and all things associated with it.

Back to the clock. Guess where I am?

At my sink. Washing dishes. Every night.

Sometimes God speaks to us in big ways- we read the Bible and a verse pops out and hits us so hard, we drop to our knees in acknowledgement that we need to change. Other times it's a slow drip, drip until we suddenly realize that change has been coming to us slowly. This is where I've been. Little changes have been taking place around our house. Starting with the dishes. I don't remember exactly when, but at some point a number of months ago, I decided I *HAD* to wash all the dishes before I went to bed at night.

Oh believe me, I love waking up to a clean kitchen more than anything in the world. But until recently, I let my desire to just "crash" after getting everyone in bed overcome the desire (and discipline) of washing the dishes each night.

While this started as a "good wife" kind of thing to do, looking back I realize it was part of a slow trickle of realization that I lack a lot of discipline in my life. Not in huge and terrible things like drugs or some "terrible" vice but in little areas of being lazy and not self-controlled.

I can look now and see that God is speaking quietly to me about this area, wanting me to change- for myself to be more self-controlled but also, and possibly more importantly, for the example of my children. I look at some of my dearest friends and I realize I have some pretty amazing, disciplined friends. And I can learn a lot from them in this area. It's part exciting and part scary to see where God is taking me and to see what changes I need to make.

For now we're starting with a clean kitchen every night. I wash up at lunch time but by bedtime there is usually a pile. And along with washing, counters need wiped and living room has to be picked up. It's a small discipline but good for my soul and nothing beats walking into a shockingly clean kitchen/living room each morning.

So where are you working on?

(Last Monday I threw the kids in the car at 10 am and drove to the beach. So much fun. And Irene was off the coast, so we had amazingly huge waves. For sure going to do this more often!)

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Comments

Mindy said…
I find myself on a similar journey of discipline...cleaning up after myself. This includes doing the dishes and wiping down counters as well as putting things away, especially shoes and clothes. I've been a slacker in this area for so long but recently I have felt the point of "enough"...so now I'm trying to mature and grow in this area. :)
Anonymous said…
from Mom: ok I definitely would have whisked you kids off to the beach instead of doing dishes!!!

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