Orderly Homes Equal Peaceful Homes

Today was not a day when my brain or my home was very orderly. My husband was working out of town, my oldest daughter drove herself two hours away in her newly purchased car to do CPR training for a camp she works at, and my next two were gone to perform and help at a play they are involved in. That left me home alone with four children, 10 and under and with a mind full of concerns for the older ones.

Now if it had been my first four it would have been a different story. I am pretty sure that Emelie could make dinner, do the dishes and put every one to bed at ten years old, but my current ten year old is a little different, partly due to my more relaxed training and partly due to being his intelligent, yet slightly egocentric boyish self. The real fault however, in how erratic my day was, lies not with my children, but with me. Having a brain full of the many different activities and duties involved with a largish family with a big age span meant that I was not fully here today. I was distracted from really training and directing my young children by my busy mind that was trying to accomplish more than was really sensible or wise. Taking care of our injured dog, getting quotes for a kitchen remodel, cleaning bathrooms, string trimming, watering plants, planting plants, cleaning the kitchen, juicing oranges and sorting out schoolwork are just a few of the activities I was involved with today. How peaceful it suddenly became this afternoon and how the strife and raised voices ceased when I finally put aside all the chores and chose to direct my children. The babies were bathed while I cleaned the bathroom and had the ten year old doing dishes. The dog was cared for under my supervision while the 8 year old cleared the dining room. I switched gears from doing my own thing, while they did theirs, to a different approach of guiding them in helping me with the chores with the reward to follow of a game played together.

The best part was when I held my two big-little boys on my lap and chatted about the day. Being home with young children can be very intense, we all have other things to think about that distract us and pull us away from guiding them, but peace in the home is obtainable and a big key to that peace is being content to direct our children and work with them as we seek to point them towards the Lord Jesus, the true Prince of Peace.