Toy Jail

I’m tired of being the manic mom who has to holler to get things picked up.

Yesterday I decided to print this saying as well as my own list of chores, glued an envelope and magnet to the back of the card-stock, and hung that and an empty plastic bag on the fridge before kicking off this new resource last night. After waaaaay too long asking them to clean up their random messes from the day I picked up a giant tub of stuff still left our. We’ve tried something similar before, but of course, follow through on my part is key. Now that they're a bit older, I'm hoping it will come easier to enforce.

You may or may not have a hard time guessing who the main culprit is [ehem, tiny] but needless to say, everyone had something in the bucket [even *cough* my hubs *cough*] I anticipated the festival of chores to begin today while I prepped food for the Super Bowl party but surprisingly there were at least 4 chores knocked out last night before bed earning back very specific desired items. This morning, a beautifully unexpected thing happened.

I watched my kids’ masterful, late-night plan unfold: all the girls were up as soon as they were allowed, did their morning chores, daily chores, made breakfast, and then started drawing new chores to earn back jailed items while the muffins baked. They worked together, helping one another accomplish chores, and celebrating with each other as each new thing was bailed out of the box. The boys woke and quickly did theirs chores with the encouragement from the girls that they could go early to the valley [church service] with their dad if they did. -news to dad, lol-

Though it’s hard to carry out and remember among the squabbles and basic routine of our days, kids are just tiny humans. We all need a commonality to keep us united. We need to stay focused on a common enemy, the mission at hand, to aid us in minimizing nonsensical arguing and laziness to take over. In our American churches we often forget our common enemy, and it's not other countries, the wrong political party, or those who sin differently than we do.

"For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." 2 Cor. 10:3-5

The cure to our nonsensical squabbles and set in laziness is to refocus our energy. Unite with one another against the actual common enemy. There are bigger things to focus on, the eternal kingdom that actually matters. We've got to put on the full armor of God, forge a beautiful, masterful, late-night if need be, plan to take on what God has called us to. And no, that's a local cause, a single political agenda, or even a worldwide issue. The real goal we should be united under is the great commition Jesus gave us:

¹⁸ Then Jesus came to [us]and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." -Matthew 28

#jesusjukedbymykids