Recently, a good friend of mine delivered her seventh baby. Seeing her with a new baby boy in her arms caused me to reminisce about what my life was like when our 7th child was born.
My oldest daughter was 11, and of course all the others went down like stair steps from there, ages 9, 8, 6, 4, 2, and then our little newborn baby boy. It was in those years of little children, their constant needs, the constant work that was necessary to meet their needs, the noise, the energy, the fun, the crying and the laughter, that the phrase HAPPY CHAOS was coined. In fact, I used to joke with my husband that my job would be a little easier if I were an octopus! Then I would have an arm for each kid, plus one left over to cook, clean, and help him!
In those busy days, I found that I could easily get distracted, and lose my focus. There had to be an over-arching goal of what God was calling me to do with my life, and if I didn’t focus my mind on that I could get bogged down in the overwhelming work load and forget that this was about way more than just fulfilling the day to day duties of being a busy mom.
For believers that driving purpose for existence is to know and love Jesus Christ, and to give our lives away so that others will come to do the same.
Three little words helped me in those busy days to keep a focused mind and to keep the happy chaos moving in the right direction. I needed to remind myself of these truths often so that I wouldn't get lost in the chaos and forget the big picture of what Christ had done for me, and what He wanted to do through me.
1. REMEMBER…. Christ has saved you!Whoever you are and whatever you do all day, if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, then this is your starting point every morning. Never lose sight of the wondrous mercy that God has shown you in the sacrifice of His Son. You are finally alive! You, like all of us, were once spiritually dead, you walked in darkness, willingly enslaved to sin as an enemy of God, and existing to carry out Satan’s agenda and your own ungodly desires. Whether in smug self-righteousness or openly fulfilling the lusts of the flesh, we all lived with the wrath of God hanging over our heads. We could not come to God, and we strongly preferred not to anyway, because we loved our darkness too much. These phrases are how the Scriptures describe us: lost and sinful and dead to God.But then an amazing, wonderful, undeserved, and unexpected thing happened to you.“While you were yet sinners, Christ died for you!”
The wise, loving, sovereign God sent His Son to suffer your punishment on a cross so that you could be clothed with the righteousness of Christ
In his book, Finally Alive, John Piper describes our release from our spiritual deadness. I love this quote because it paints such a vivid picture of our captivity to/and love of sin, and then how all that changes when we are awakened to truth and Christ.
P. 58: "God grants repentance-- that is, he awakens the life that sees the ugliness and danger of sin and the beauty and worth of Christ. That truth sets the prisoner free. It's what happens when a person in the dark fondles an ebony brooch hanging around his neck, and then the lights go on and he sees it's not a brooch but a cockroach, and flings it away. That's how people are set free from the devil. And until God does that miracle of new birth, we stay in bondage to the father of lies because we love to be able to tell ourselves whatever we please. We keep fondling smooth roaches and warm fuzzy tarantulas in the dark."
Being a mother that honors God, and keeping the right focus, doesn’t start with parenting "how to’s". It starts with remembering that you once were dead, but God who is rich in mercy has made you alive together with Christ. Remembering this good news is the starting point for every day that we are alive, because it changes everything: your values, your direction, and your purpose on this earth.
CJ Mahaney says, “Love the Gospel. Never leave it. Never stop being awed by the mercy of God displayed to you in Christ.”
2. RESPOND….Christ has a job for you!2 Cor. 5:15 says “and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for HIM who died and rose again on their behalf.”
How do we live for Him?
By exalting Christ and proclaiming His Gospel to our children during the short time that we have them with us.This may seem like an obvious statement, but I can testify to the fact that a concerted effort must be made daily to see that this happens. Every child has needs, and the more children, the more needs and we must focus our minds to make sure that we make the important things happen each day. Also, there are stresses, conflicts, resistance, disappointments, and each of those things can cause us to forget that we are here to live for Him.
Living for Him involves EXALTING CHRIST. In Phil. 1:20-21, Paul expresses his great desire that Christ be exalted.Everyday we make decisions that either exalt the Lord that we say we follow or contradict our confession before our children. Many opportunities arise each day where we choose to show that we love Christ, that we are committed to doing His will, that we long to obey His word, that we want to imitate Him, and that we love the things that He loves. Christ is exalted by our obedient conduct, and our children are watching. Paul said that whether he lived or died, no matter what happened, he wanted His life to exalt the name of Jesus.
Living for Christ means PROCLAIMING HIS GOSPEL: Paul says in Colossians 1:28,29 that his goal was to teach and admonish others with the result that they would be presented complete in Christ one day.
In the same way, we must make the effort to speak to our children about the Lord. Not only through our actions, but we have a responsibility to teach, exhort, encourage, rebuke, convince, and persuade, our children of the truths of the Gospel. There are many opportunities, but without a focused mind to this goal, we can rush through the busy day and miss them. There are many things against us when we set out to do this, but dependent on the grace of Christ, we must keep striving toward this goal. Christ promises to bless his word and cause it to bear fruit. We must labor for this, always praying to the God who loves sinners, delights to transform hearts, and beg Him to save and sanctify our children.
And finally,
3. REJOICE! Christ is all you need! One of the best pieces of advice that I was ever given was this:“Don’t let anything steal your joy!”
It was Brian who exhorted me with those words, and he said them to me when I was discouraged and worn out by a conflict that had lasted for many days with one of my children. He reminded me that my joy should be so securely anchored in Christ alone, that I could be at peace in Him no matter what happened. If everything else that I valued were stripped away, He would still be enough.Having Him was more important that even the good things that I longed to see in the lives of my children.
As Piper says, “Jesus should be our greatest treasure.” The apostle Paul counted everything as a loss in comparison to knowing Jesus.Even in resistance, fatigue, trials, hard work, and little rest, we will find in Jesus Christ alone the deep satisfaction and fulfillment that will allow us to say, “He is enough. I need nothing else in this world to be happy.”
These three truths still drive my every day, as the happy chaos continues! God is good!
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