Today, I'm Not the Mouth of God. I'm Just Me

(all photos in this post are by our great friend Chad Riley).

Let's chat.

I haven't chit-chatted with you in over a month.  Yes, I write often, but lately it's all been heavy and spiritual... rarely personal.

I read this rocking verse a while ago about how to be the mouth of God, and my awe for the verse's truth has kept me from small talk here.

"If you utter what is precious,

and not what is worthless,

you shall be as My mouth."

Jeremiah 15:19 (last part of verse)

Oh how I love this verse.  I want to speak His precious truth. Sometimes, He lets me.

But, (you can fake surprised,) I'm not the mouth of God.  And sometimes, it's nice to simply shoot the breeze.  To share with you not only the gospel, but my life (1 Thes. 2:8).

So, instead of talking about big spiritual issues, I'm going to simply tell you what's been going on with me.

We have a lot of catching up to do.

Six months in to this "stay at home wife and mom" gig, I'm reevaluating my job description.  I'm proud of a few things.  We're figuring out the big "should we homeschool for kindergarten  question , (a topic which deserves a post of its own.)  I've been writing and blogging a lot.  I see some tender green sprouts of ministry potential growing in my life in areas of both youth girls and citywide orphan care.

But...
(...and as long as I breathe in this life, there will always be a but...)

...I still haven't embraced the beautiful stay-at-home wife/mom task of making this life a home.  I'm just not into holidays, or cooking, or crafts, or decorating, or cleaning.  It's not that I don't like many of these things.  (Okay, so I hate cleaning. But the rest I want to do!)  When I picture my dream life, I'm doing these things!  Yet so far, I haven't cultivated an eye or talent for them.  I haven't even made time for them.

And recently, I woke up and realized that I want to be more... domestic I guess?

And not because I'm stuck in an old-fashioned, woman-oppressing era.  Believe me, I'm thankful for the women's rights movement, and that no one kept me from voting Tuesday because of supposed female inferiority.  It's simply that I love the idea of making my family exhale at the taste of home-cooking, or feel pride to invite guests here.

And there's one other matter.

I love writing about God.  But I spend so much time on the writing, I'm afraid I'm neglecting the living for God.  I protect my writing time to the point that I don't make it to the church kitchen to help cook for shut-ins.  I don't put together the Bible study I know I'm called to lead. I don't cook the meal I could double to both feed my family and the friends who are having a rough season.

So...

For a while, I'm going to be blogging about simple things.  I'll be writing about the little changes I'm making around the house.  I'll be showing you the crafts I make with my girls, the meals we cook, how we educate, the healthy kid-lunches we pack for mother's day out.

I'm making these changes anyway, so it just takes a few extra minutes to add them online.  And I need the extra time to create the life I want.

Now, this space isn't changing forever. Within a week or two, I promise I'll be posting spiritual truths again. Little on earth brings me more joy.  But, I need to prioritze my life.

Live for God before I write for Him.
Serve my family before I serve you out in cyberspace.

And as I seek Him first, I'm pretty sure this writing thing will come back around to full steam as well:

"But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, 

and all these things will be added to you."

Matthew 6:33