My Mom and God's Intimate Care

I came home from work the other day to find that my Mom had ventured into the abyss of my bedroom and vacuumed. First of all, my Mom and I are very close and she is one person that I usually don't mind- "seeing my mess", but let me tell you, every Tuesday and Thursday before she comes to my house, I CLOSE our bedroom door because...um...yeah...it is a disaster. We have clothes everywhere, the kids like to sit on our bed and watch cartoons and yeah, they snack ON our bed, so we have popsicle wrappers, and we have bowls with crusted cereal and we have toys and books and little boy underwear and we have ALOT of dirt built-up on that carpet.


My problem with vacuuming upstairs it that:
1. the vacuum is heavy and I don't feel like dragging it up the stairs
(lame- but true)
2. I hate picking up clothes and hanging them up when I know they will be on the floor again in a few hours (my husband and I both struggle with this- doesn't it just seem like the step from clothes off to on the hanger is just PAINFUL, or is it just me?)...and obviously you can't vacuum a floor covered in clothes! :)
3. it is just not a priority

So when I came home...my bedroom floor was not only vacuumed but scrubbed clean. And I thought about how so often, I feel the least amount of peace in that room (um, maybe because it is MESS, huh?) and when I walked into my bedroom, I took a deep breathe, I wanted to lay down on that nicely made bed, I looked at my clothes all neatly hung up and I felt like a little load was taken off...So what does this have to do with God? I will get back to that...

So- my Mom is AMAZING.

She watches my boys two days/week for me and she is always prepared. She brings them new activities, new foods to try out...She brings them my old books and reads them to my boys and I find out at bedtime that my son knows all about "Busy Town" and "Raggedy Anne and Andy" and it melts my heart...
Mom with the boys...

 

Mom and Benjamin

 

Mom and Lincoln

She takes my three year old to story time, she finds interesting local events to take him too...

Happy boy at storytime!

Everyday after school she has freshly popped (on the stove) popcorn ready in bowls for them.



And yes, my boys never wear shirts:)

She lets my boys be silly and then sends me pictures like this one- at work to show me how blessed I am!

Playing in the rain!

And this amazing woman- FOLDS my laundry and SCRUBS my carpet. For a working Mom, these kinds of things are just bountiful graces at the end of a long day at work...

And then she exceeded my expectations even more...by entering the "dungeon" of my bedroom...

 

My Mom is such an example to me of a servant and of Christ.

God uses her to remind me that He cares about every detail of my life. He shows up in the small details (taking care of things that unnerve me, or meeting an unexpected need, or with an unexpected 30 minutes at the end of the day to sit alone and relax). And in every detail, He is showing me His love for me. My love language is acts of service. God knows that. There are certain things that need to be done and when someone does them for me, my heart overflows with love.

Grace is what I felt when I walked into my bedroom- grace is like that feeling of plopping down on a beautifully made bed that you did not make and walking on soft, clean carpet that you did not clean, after a long day of work...

Grace...will always be my favorite topic to blog about because it is the only thing in my life that I don't have to DO anything to RECEIVE. It is, by definition- unmerited favor...My Mom shows me this- all the time...

Happy (Almost) Mother's Day to my gracious and amazing Mama and thank you God for caring about all of the details in my life and in your grace, meeting my needs above and beyond all I could ever expect or imagine.