Keep On Keeping On

  I was reading an Elisabeth Elliott devotional this week.  The gist of this devotional is that often a great challenge to a godly life is the need to do mundane tasks over and over again.

  I have read many missionary biographies, and the people who amaze me did, well, amazing things!  Elisabeth Elliott's first husband, Jim, tried to reach the Waoroni tribe in Ecuador.  He and his 4 companions were speared to death.  Elisabeth and Rachel Saint (sister of one of the martyrs) later went into the Waoroni tribe that was responsible for the deaths of the missionaries, and shared the gospel. That is an amazing story.

  Amy Carmichael reached out to children caught up in temple prostitution in India, and gave dozens of such children safe homes.

  Gladys Alward successfully shepherded dozens of children through war torn China during World War II.

  Eric Liddell won a gold medal in the 400 meters in 1924 (see Chariots of Fire if you haven't, great movie!) and then went to China as a missionary. He perished in a Japanese internment camp during WWII, due to a brain tumor.

  Ida Scudder turned her back on a life of comfort to work as a female doctor in India, at a time when Indian women were woefully underserved.  She started medical schools for women and brought relief to literally thousands.

  And then there's me ... living in comfort in the United States.  My family is my main priority during this season of life.  Since I've had little ones for a very long time, I have changed diapers, and changed diapers, and changed diapers.  I've potty trained, and potty trained, and potty trained again.  I've overseen the washing of 10,000 loads of laundry. I've settled 92, 364 sibling squabbles (give or take 10,000).  I'm now protecting my 9th toddler from hurting herself on a daily basis due to her lack of wisdom.

  You get my drift.  My life is blessedly comfortable.  No war, no famine, no plague. But a fair amount of boredom.  A fair amount of doing the same tasks over and over and OVER again, especially where the little ones are concerned.

 I've long been someone who thrives on routine and even now, I find pleasure in getting certain things done.  Having said that, I've struggled with discontentment lately as I am finding some aspects of parenting tiresome.  I would say, in particular, the tantrums of the preschoolers are especially exasperating right now.  I'm tired of tantrums.  I've DONE tantrums. Sarah, of course, has never been at the age of tantrums before so all this is new and exciting to her :-).

  So this devotional was encouraging.  Yes, life has its boring moments.  Yes, we just have to do the same things, faithfully, over and over and over again.

  And there are some really nice things about this season too, of course.  My big kids now can have exciting and interesting conversations with me.  I'm past the age when I was at home with tinies who couldn't talk much.  WAY past.  And the big kids help a lot with the little ones. We now have built in babysitters.  What BLISS.

 The young ones are also delightful, of course.  Daniel keeps us chuckling with his adorable remarks.  Sarah, whose brain works overtime, has come up with some astounding comments that delight and amuse us.

  And of course, Rose.  Well, Rose is consistently adorable.

 So partly I need to count my blessings, and partly I just need to keep on keeping on.