Tax(ing) Day Devotions

As you all know, I have spent the better part of the last 2 weeks without the companionship of my best friend and half-bearer of the parental load.  To say that it was all very taxing (pun intended ;D) is fair.  The warmer weather is finally making its way to our neighborhood and we all feel the itch to end a school day even just a little earlier to be able to play.  Unfortunately, the work is still there and after dragging part of the outside in with us, a bit more work of keeping floors clean can be challenging. 

Yesterday was B's first full day back home.  Yay!  He spent it doing our taxes since the accountant we hired didn't complete them.  In an effort to help him with all of the upacking so he could concentrate on the paperwork, I took it upon myself to tackle the cooler he had taken with some food.  It was in need of a good washing with bleach before storing it away.  I sent H downstairs to retrieve the bleach.  C came running up the stairs to let me know that H had dropped and spilled the bleach.  I raced downstairs, introduced my two boys to some new vocabulary, and immediately grabbed towels and H and I blotted and dabbed until we couldn't get anything else up.  There had been one puddle the size of a dinner plate, but the hard part was that it had splashed the entire length of the hall, up the walls and then ran down along the baseboard.  Thank goodness we have a steam cleaner and I diluted most of it.  There is much fading in those places, but because my kids are so good at dirtying the carpets, hopefully these areas will all be blended within a week.

I have really felt like I have spent a lot of time repeating myself.  "Wash your hands.  Comb your hair.  Use a washcloth.  Wipe your feet.  Clear the dishwasher.  I could use some help."  Now, I want to say two things.  First, my kids actually are great at helping around the house--even without being asked some of the times.  Second, I am NOT a neat freak.  I really think that it is the warmer weather and the end of the school year that is pulling our attentions to being carefree.  So, I planned to take the day off of school today and take advantage of a longer weekend. 

All of this brings me to the devotions I had this morning.  I read from "My Utmost for His Highest".  (I saw my cousin photograph a page of the Bible from a scripture that she wanted to share and I'd dearly love to do that except that B is sound asleep and I'd have to disturb him to get the camera.  I'll have to key this in for you.) 

"But the high places were not taken away out of Israel; nevertheless the heart of Asa was perfect all his days."  2 Chronicles 15:17. 

Chambers then goes on to talk about how Asa was right and obedient in the main but not entirely right.  God, he said, doesn't take things lightly as we do.  He says, "Nothing is a light matter with a child of God.  How much longer are some of us goin to keep God trying to teach us one thing?  He never loses patience."  Homerun!  God was speaking to me.  I have to ask myself if there are things that I have doubts about and leave them at the foot of the cross.  I have to keep myself spriritually fit.  Thankfully Chambers ends the devotional with this, "Some of us expect to "clear the numberless ascensions" in about two minutes."  What encouragement to me.

I am proud to say that I rarely lost my cool over the last couple of weeks with the kids while B was gone.  I need to remember that they are not going to "clear the numberless chores" in two minutes.  Lord, help me to not just see the outcomes, but their efforts.