Life is Chaos
Editor’s Note: This is a guest story by Monica Braun. Love this mom life devotional! Thanks, Monica!
Life is chaos.
I am a working mother to a 15-month-old, my son named Danny. I am pregnant, and expecting in July. Let’s just say that our lives are a little, um, messy.
The kitchen is usually disheveled. Dishes and sippy cups are consistently piled in the sink. The dishwasher is full on most days from making dinner and cleaning it up and doing it all over again the next evening.
The leftovers from my grandma’s pasta recipe that I made are dripping all over the oven and the delicious red sauce is oozing all over little Danny’s face.
There are permanent crumbs on the floor, which resemble dried pasta. They seem to be painted on the carpet under the highchair where Danny eats.
When he is not in his high chair, he is crawling on the floor trying to eat his leftover dinner.
He must have really liked that pasta.
As such, sweeping and vacuuming have been added to the never-ending to-do list.
And the pacifier. As soon as I give it to him to appease him, he swiftly throws it on the floor, forcing me to make several trips to the sink every day to sanitize it. It seems as though what is ‘pacifying’ him is making a game out of his ‘pacifier.’
I remind myself that he is not trying to make me run laps around my house on purpose.
Not to mention the new baby gear scattered all around the house
as we prepare and welcome home another little bundle of joy. The new baby bottles, pacifiers, and breast pump parts are scattered on the counter, waiting to be washed and used for baby number two.
And then there is the laundry that needs to be washed. All. The. Time.
The list of chores makes me want to throw in my dishtowel, crawl upstairs in bed, and forget the chaos that ensues around me.
I feel helpless, overwhelmed, frustrated.
And that friend who texted me last week? I forgot to call her back because I was so busy.
How I miss the long conversations over wine that we used to have.
It seems like no matter how much we clean the house or try to check off our never-ending to-do lists, we just cannot catch up. Ever.
Is this a cruel cycle of events? Like a video game determined for us to fail at the end?
And are we supposed to win this game?
Life is messy. Relationships are messy. We are inherently flawed.
Before I throw in my dishtowel, I consider that we are not supposed to do it all or have it all together. If that were the case, would we need God?
Jesus said, “Come to me all ye that are burdened and heavy laden and I will give you rest” Matthew 11:28.
Jesus is our refuge and our rock. He wants to take all of the burdens from us, big and small. So, instead of trying to control our messy lives, we should try to surrender it to Him.
Now, this doesn’t mean that we should sit lazily on the couch as the leftover pasta dinner dries on the floor, but it does take the pressure off of having to be perfect.
Jesus doesn’t want us to be perfect. He doesn’t want our lives to be wrapped up in a tidy little box with a bow on top. He wants us to embrace the chaos of life: the joys, the sorrows, the unpredictable turn of events. He wants us to be present in these moments as we trust in Him. Because this is life, and life is messy. Along with our house.
As we embrace the chaos, joy abounds.
So when I have an urge to clean sporadically or feel guilty about an unanswered text from a friend, I try to shrug it off, embrace the chaos, and hold on during this wild ride called life.
No matter where the ride leads us next, Jesus will be there to help us land safely. We cannot lose the game with Him by our side. Victory has already been won for us.
Monica Braun has a bachelor’s degree in English from Michigan State University and a master’s in education from Aquinas College. She teaches High School English in Racine, Wisconsin, and is an aspiring writer. She has one son and is expecting another! She is a follower of Jesus Christ. (picture is attached below).Facebook: @embracingjesus Twitter: @monicambraun
