My official homeschooling uniform is raggedy shorts and a shirt that doesn’t smell (hopefully). I usually don’t have make up on, unless I’m going somewhere that day. (Every time my son hears me rattling in my make up bag, he asks me where I am going). My feet are hard and peely because I don’t wear socks and shoes in the house. I’m a terrible procrastinator. I’m addicted to that adrenalin rush you get when you save stuff until the very last minute, then the adrenalin kicks in, and I get stuff done.

A big part of my day is sitting on the couch reading aloud to my two kids. This has been our homeschooling routine since we started homeschooling. We’ve read hundreds of books: historical fiction, biographies, and classics. There we sit on the couch, just the three of us, reading and listening to great books.

When the kids were younger and we didn’t have gluten and dairy issues, I would often fix grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch with cut up apples. We always have a quiet time after lunch. (We’ve been in each others faces for the whole morning-we all need a break). By 3:00pm, I’m headed to the kitchen to start getting dinner ready.

We might throw in a load of laundry or two in the mix. A toilet or two, cleaned. Garbage emptied. Dishes done. (Never done perfectly, but eventually it gets done).

At the end of the day, I sometimes wonder what I did all day? Amidst the grilled cheese sandwiches, books and laundry, how have I changed the world?

I remember a comment a friend of mine made while we were in Bible study going over the story of Jesus turning water into wine. She said she always pictured Jesus in the corner glowing. But the story of Him turning the water into wine, made Him more human. His mother demanded He help them out with the running out of wine problem. He wasn’t going to do it, but then He obliged her and turned the water into wine. It wasn’t the turning water into wine that I could relate to. It was the arguing with your mother. Jesus really was human. Like my friend said Jesus wasn’t glowing in the corner being God. He was acting like a human.

Now Jesus is God. Yet when He lived on this planet, He walked around doing very human things. He got hungry, He got thirsty, He got tired, He got angry, and He got sad. That sounds just like my family: hungry, thirsty, tired, angry and sad. Just before Jesus left the planet, He prayed to God that He had done the Father’s will. Yet He hadn’t saved every soul, He hadn’t cured every disease in the world, He hadn’t raised everyone from the dead. He was leaving the planet while there still was disease, death, and sorrow in the world.

Jesus’ humanity makes me feel better about my own. My kids and I don’t spend the whole day singing hymns or on our knees praying. We don’t spend the whole day reading the Bible. We don’t wear long, brown monkish robes with bright halos hanging over our heads. I stand near my dining room table, in my raggedy shorts, staring at the half eaten grilled cheese sandwiches and know that I have done spiritual work. I have fed the hungry. I have given drink to the thirsty. I have put to bed the tired. I love, love, love what Amy Carmicheal said when a donor approached her to give money to her but said it must go for SPIRITUAL WORK.

“In her experience in India, she said, she found that souls were “more or less firmly attached to bodies.” Bodies require houses and therefore housecleaning: food and therefore cooking; clothes and therefore washing.” p. 157 The Shaping of a Christian Family by Elisabeth Elliot

My children’s soul attached bodies require all of the above. It felt like when the kids were little, I was constantly bathing chubby little bodies. It seemed like only after an hour, their clothes had been through a food fight and needed to be washed. Putting down toddlers for a nap was a very good work and the world should thank me for such things.

What am I saying? I am saying that doing the mundane work of taking care of my kids IS spiritual. I am a Christian and I do dishes! I am a Christian and I don’t read the Bible all day! I am a Christian and I have fed my children grilled cheese sandwiches! In the midst of my raggedy shorts wearing, clothes washing, cooking (often) unhealthy meals, I have been doing spiritual work and God is pleased with me! Thank you very much!

“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven  give what is good to those who ask Him.” Matthew 7:11

I have heard it before. I’m sure you have heard it before. A friend or family member is talking about God. They are usually going through a trial of some kind and they say something about God hurting them. God is treating them badly. Or they ask the question, “Why is God allowing this in my life?” I have heard some friends or family members say they don’t want to fully commit to God because it might hurt. God might send them to Africa or Antarctica, never to be seen by anyone again. There is a distrust of God. He’s scary. He wants to hurt because through hurt we will change. He wants to change us and nobody likes change. Is that who God is? Does He want to hurt us? Does He not care about our feelings? Is He a big meanie head? (to quote my nephew).

God is getting some bad press. To understand who God is, we need to go to His Word. He tells us in there, who He is, how He treats us, how He cares for us, how much He loves us. There is some good stuff in there. And it’s quite the opposite of what many people say about Him.

“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him,” Matthew 7:11

Most of you reading this are parents. If not, you can still relate to this because you most likely had parents in your past or presently. When you are a parent, there is an unbelievable love there. It’s undeniable. You look at your child and your heart leaps. You would do anything for your child. You would scale the highest mountain, swim the deepest ocean, run the longest road just to help your child if they needed it. We as parents often question ourselves. Are we doing all we can for our kids? How are they doing? What’s going on in their noggins? We like to delight our kids. Just tonight, I ran to the grocery store to get some toilet paper and I saw these cute little tic tac containers that looked like baby chicks. They were so cute. I had to buy two of them for each of my kids. They were delighted when I got home. It’s not like I broke the bank for them. They were just a cute after thought. I knew my kids would enjoy them.

God says that if I, being evil, know how to give good gifts to my kids, how much more will God give what is good to those who ask? I gave my kids tic tacs and they didn’t even ask for them. God is in heaven and He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. I think He can do better than tic tacs. I mean, am I right?

“Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone. Or, if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake,” Matthew 7:9-10

The verses before Matthew 7:11 tell exactly how God treats us. He treats us better than we treat our own kids. None of us give our kids stones when they ask for bread. None of us give our kids snakes when they ask for fish. We might give them tic tacs, but those are something they didn’t ask for. God is telling us the standard He goes by. The standard is better than how we treat our own kids. Put that in the bank. Better…than…we…treat…our…own…kids. Hmmm, that’s quite a comparison. Think about how you treat your own kids. God trumps you. He does better than that.

God is NOT a meanie head as some may think. He loves us. He loves us more than we love our own kids. Put some thought into that. How do you feel about your own kids? What gifts have you given your kids? God does way better than that. Think about that birthday present you bought your child. Think about the time and money you spent getting the gift for them. You knew it would delight them. You couldn’t wait to see them open it. Think about all of that. Now remember God does better than that to His children. If you don’t want to be dropped off at the end of the earth, God knows that about you. He’s not going to drop you off at the end of the earth just to torture you. He loves you. He does way better than the way you treat your own kids. He does way better than tic tacs.

I remember a number of years ago I was talking to a man about homeschooling my children. He said there was a kid in his neighborhood that was homeschooled. He sneered,” Yeah, I think he just reads the Bible all day.” He implied that the bible was an old, odd book that couldn’t be good for anyone.

You hear it time and time again, sneers and snide remarks about the Bible. It’s old, it’s stupid, it’s irrelevant. It doesn’t matter now. It’s an old book of fairy tales. Well the Bible isn’t odd and irrelevant. It is old and that probably makes it even more powerful.

The Bible is 100% accurate. EVERY single one of it’s prophecies have come true. Not, 10% or 50%, but 100%. It has stood the test of time since the creation of the world. It is God’s inspired work. And if it’s God’s inspired work, then the information in there HAS to be legit (to use a term my teenagers use). I propose to you that you will get the maximum benefit out of life, if you follow the Bible’s guidelines.

God doesn’t tell us to not to do things because He’s some killjoy in the sky. He’s not up in heaven thinking of ways to torture us and take out all the fun in life. He tells us what to do and what not to do because He has our best interest in mind. He created us, He should know. It’s just like us as parents. We’re not telling our kids no because we hate them. We’re telling them no because we love them and want to protect them. No, don’t go in the street because if you go in the street you will get smashed by big cars going by. And I love you and don’t want to see you smashed. Or, No, don’t drink the water in the toilet, because it has tons of germs in it and I don’t want to see you sick.

God says don’t get drunk but be filled with the Holy Spirit. Why? Because He hates us and He doesn’t want us to have any fun? No, because you will feel like garbage afterward and spend the next day making apologies and fixing everything while you were “having all that fun” getting drunk. There are no bad side effects to being filled with the Holy Spirit.

God says to wait until you get married to have sex. Again, because He’s our cosmic killjoy? No, because if you wait, you will experience sex like it was created to be. I’ve talked to people who said that their sex life was almost non-existent after they got married because they never waited. There is a statistic that says you have more than a 50% chance of divorce if you lived with each other before marriage over those couples who waited until they got married to have sex. That’s a big percentage. Who tells us to wait until marriage, why God does through His Word.

God says don’t commit adultery. Why? Because it will have terrible results to everyone involved. Look at King David’s life. He committed adultery and murder. He lost his child from the affair and one of his sons tried to kill him and died in the process. See…not good.

Do it His way. If you follow God’s plan you will get the maximum pleasure out of life:

No sex before marriage = awesome sex life after marriage

Don’t get drunk = no feeling like crud, and no apologies to make

No adultery = No wrecked families and relationships

These are just a few examples. You will get the maximum pleasure out of life following God’s plan. Shouldn’t you consult the designer? He knows what He’s talking about.