Joy n Pain: Who Are You Gon' Listen To?

I wrote this back in April (the 5th to be exact) had it saved as a draft, and forgot to publish it. I need it on my front page, today more than ever. Because today is cleaning day!

So, today I'm taking a moment to read some blogs and get some comfort and wisdom from some of the many bloggin' ladies on the net and I stumble across one of the homeschool bloggin' moms I admire. Nothin' like my own mom though, much love to her. Okay I had to get that out.

This homeschool mom is Kim Brenneman, and the title of the Blog Post I read today is Chaos, Squalor, Filth. I titled this post "Who Are You Gon' Listen To?" because this post changed my way of thinking in a lot of ways, and it was worded the way I needed to hear it today.

If you have a moment click on this link and see the full picture of what Kim is saying but in case you don't - in a nutshell, she talks about the importance of cleaning daily, teaching your children about cleaning, and not using the excuse of having multiple children (or the excuse of homeschooling) as an excuse to waiver in that area. By the way, if you're reading this and you have a housekeeper or you never have challenges in this area -- bless you.....

I do understand that there are times when there will be temporary seasons where a mom may not able to keep everything 'spic', such as illness, having a new baby, etc. But there are not many other reasons that give you that license.

I remember my mom telling me after I had my first little mama, that 'you just have to do what you have to do'. I was looking for an excuse to have some pitty because of my new adjustment to motherhood plus household management.

Well in the season I'm currently in, I've read blogs and heard stories of other moms who have multiple children who are respectable ladies and are doing very well in what they do as mothers and in the midst of that I've "heard" them allude to the fact that their homes are not always in order. Well during my seasons here and there when my home is not in order, I've quickly gone to those examples or to other examples that give me a bit of comfort. Comfort in knowing that it happens to many mothers, nobody's perfect, sometimes it just gets like that, company understands - they're family. It was a rough week. It's not the norm for me but in some of my weak moments, I've gone to those voices (from others or in my head) that gave me a license to relax.

Not after today. As long as I'm in my right mind and leaning on the strength of the Holy Spirit, I will not listen to those voices. Kim's post put a hurt on me! And it challenged me to rethink the way I clean and the frequency that I clean and the overall attitude about those two things. To not think about a cleaning day, but doing major cleaning daily. It turned me to the voice of the Lord regarding the whole thing. I've had friends who I admire who are very dilligent about deep cleaning and dusting daily and the whole nine yards but I'm going to pull out my "youngest child card" there and admit that I got away with quite a bit growing up and I have to work hard to get out of that mind set! LOL

So when I'm feeling tired and lazy, Who Am I Gon' Listen To? Whether it's making a choice about not cleaning to the full extent, eating bad, lying, deceiving, talking back to Jeoff, taking out my anger on my child, being dishonest in my work environment, speeding, overspending, or what ever it is.......... what voice am I going to listen to?

I pray for the strength and discipline to listen to the voice of God regarding the matter. And not the voice of comfort that tells me things like:

oh it's okay, other mothers go through it, I'm too tired to put all those clothes away AND get dishes in the dishwasher AND clean out the tubs AND sweep the floor AND clean all the tubs AND vaccuum the floorsAND take out the trash: