Wednesday's Household - is it worth it?

Today, I'm feeling like it's not.  I can totally relate to my step-sister's post My House: A War Zone.  When I'm lazy during the day, I don't really care.  But when I've worked hard and wrestled with four little (and one big one) sin natures all day and I've done all I could to keep up on the laundry and the house clean, and yet it looks like it's in a perpetual state of mess.  I want to throw my hands up in despair and say "I give up."

It doesn't hurt so bad and feel like offense so much when I haven't been doing my job.  It doesn't feel like an attack or a war on my job so much when I put my feet up and sat at the computer all day. 

But it really feels like they are out to get me, when I've spent all day doing dishes and they come home and within two minutes there are ten cups on the counter and only six people in the house. 

It really feels like they are trying to make more work for me, when I empty their laundry basket and find clothes I haven't seen them wear in forever (maybe never) and something still hanging on it's hangar. 

When I find their shoes filled with dirt in a huge pile on the back porch, I feel like they want our family to look bad. 

I think that these are lies.  I'm pretty sure there is nothing intentional about these things.  They aren't trying to make more work, they don't want our family to look bad, they aren't out to get me. 

They just aren't being intentional about making sure these things don't happen.  So I need to teach them, but my time is so limited from when they get home from school (some don't get home till 6 and then have an hour or two of homework).   

So this morning, I put a letter in two of my older boys' hands.  One for each of them.  One was about the laundry and how there were many things in there that hadn't been worn and one even was on a hangar.  The other was about some things the other had left out for someone else to care for.

It was a plea for them to get their hearts on board, for them to remember their jobs, and hopefully it wasn't in their face as much as my nagging can be.  You see, these two are teenagers (or almost) and I need their hearts, not just outward conformity.

Please remember that your family isn't out to get you.  Don't let those thoughts reign in your mind.  Run to the word, fill your mind with His truths.  And also remember that if our children were perfect and had it all together, they wouldn't need us.

Steph