Life Every Day

"The process of shaping the child...shapes also the mother herself. Reverence for her sacred burden calls her to all that is pure and good, that she may teach primarily by her own humble daily example." - Elisabeth Elliot, The Shaping of a Christian Family

"We grow spiritually by obeying God through the words of Jesus being made spirit and life to us, and by paying attention to where we are, not to whether we are growing or not. We grow spiritually as our Lord grew physically, by a life of simple, unobtrusive obedience." - Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

I would love to share one more quote, but the book is in our basement and retrieving it would be to risk waking three little Kochs two and a half hours early and it's library day. In it, one of my favorite authors, Isobel Kuhn, talks about how young people these days want to do something "big" with their life, and for God. ("These days" for her were in the 1930's. Times have not changed.) They have romantic ideas of the great things they will become, and then find themselves disappointed with the mundane days they find themselves in several years later as the responsibilities of life, marriage and children set in. She then says she has found that it is in the every day living out of our lives, loving one another, loving and obeying God- that is where the real richness and excitement of life, and quality in our relationships is found- in living and working every day right there in the middle of life.

I believe they are right. It's easy to be swept up in visions of doing great, amazing things, dreaming of what God could do with us. Then as our life sets in, so does the disillusionment. A great marriage takes a tremendous amount of intentionality, children require an endless amount of energy and time, and the work and stuff of life threaten to take us over! And yet, that is what we're called to do- to live the life He's called us to, to multiply and leave a godly legacy- and that's done by receiving the gift of life every day with joy, embracing the life we're given-that we could never deserve. And so our life is made- of a million moments of love, faith, laughter, simple beauty, hard work, thankless service- lived in joyful obedience and steadfast faith. A million moments collect at the end to reveal a legacy that shows not that we did something "great", but that we have lived, loved and been led by a Great God.