Praying God's Wisdom/Making it Work: Commit Your Plans to the LORD

  Sometimes life isn't ideal. Let's face it, most of the time it isn't! So, we do what we need to, to make things work. In my "Making It Work" posts, I share life hacks and ideas that have helped me so that, maybe, they can help someone else too. I hope you enjoy!

This is how I used to do laundry: several loads washed and then piled up on a couch
 or bed followed by one massive folding session

Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans. Proverbs 16:3

 Less is more. We hear it all the time, but do we believe it? I often don’t, or at least I don’t live in such a way that shows that I do. I think it’s kind of like my purses. It really doesn’t matter what size purse I carry; I will fill it. If it is a tiny clutch, I will fill it. If it is a mega satchel, I will fill it. So, I have to be careful what size purse I use or I’ll throw my shoulder out! Turns out I have a tendency to do this with my life as well. Whether I have a little ability or energy in a day, or a lot, I will max it out. I’ve caught myself trying to do so many things at once that all the balls in the air dropped and everything failed. “Ooh, I have a little extra time today! I’ll take care of this and this and this and this…” I don’t actually get a lot accomplished, but I do end up frazzled and worn out, making it almost certain that the next day I will not be in great shape.

 One day recently was like this. I had given myself a lengthy to-do list and I was literally in the middle of multiple tasks on it at once with timers going off all around me and people coming to the door and the dogs going crazy and it finally dawned on me, this just isn’t how God intended it to be. There’s got to be a better way! What I know is, our God is a God of order, not chaos, and I have found rest and peace in order in the past. So, I prayed about it and sat down with my calendar. I realize that I had *about* six major things that I do on a regular basis, things that take 1-2 hours+. I often tried to do two or three of these things in one day, because they needed to be done, and ended up exhausted – and not necessarily doing the things well. So, I prayerfully considered it and assigned each of those tasks to a day, with one day off for a sabbath rest. I’ve been trying out my new schedule for a few weeks now, and it is so restful! I am getting much more done in a much healthier way, and it is coming out better and I am coming out better. I like it! I actually look forward to each days’ task. I’m excited that today is finances day, the day where I balance our virtual checkbook and manage our budget. Some of my chores, like making the meal plan and grocery list, are not as exciting to me, but doing it this way, with time carved out for it and not trying to cram it in just before we go shopping, feels so much less stressful and I’m starting to appreciate the puzzle-style nature of it all. But that’s only six things and there’s a lot more than that to do in a week.

 Another challenge I faced is larger tasks, those that I used to do all at once in a day and knock it out but that I am no longer able to do like that. This would be things like the laundry or cleaning the bathroom. For a period of time as I was recovering from our trip last May, my husband actually had to take over the laundry which was the second to last thing on the list of stuff I do that I’ve had to share with him. That sounds a little strange without context I guess. Dealing with chronic illness, and several major injuries and surgeries, I’ve had to prioritize my tasks and determine what I really want to do myself and what I am willing to ask for help with. Sometimes that willing is through gritted teeth as I hold onto the task with both hands and my husband has to pry it out of them, but we both know I just can’t do it in that season. The laundry was something I thought I’d never give up, but at one point I just had to. The baskets of laundry were piling up around our room and I just couldn’t do them. We were digging through them for clean clothes to wear each morning, and each night I’d tell my husband that *maybe* I’d get to them tomorrow, but tomorrow never came. And then one day, he just did them. Yes, he folded everything wrong and put things away differently than I would, but they were put away. I wasn’t having to climb over baskets to get to things. And I, begrudgingly, surrendered. But as fall progressed, I was feeling ever so slightly better, and I was longing to have my underwear folded the way I like it. I knew I couldn’t do five or six loads of laundry in a day, pile them up on my bed, and fold them all and put them away. That was days more energy than I had. But I could do one load. Even if I just ran a load of towels and put them away, that was something! So I started there. On days when I felt up to it, I threw in a load. On days when I felt up to it, I folded a load my husband had run. Now, I shoot to run a load of laundry three or four days a week. No pressure, just if I see that we have one ready and I feel like I have room in my day. Guess what, my husband hasn’t had to run laundry in weeks! We haven’t run out of clothes or towels, and we rarely have a basket of clean laundry hanging out in our room for any length of time. Same goes with cleaning the bathroom. I just don’t have what it takes anymore to do it all in one shot. But when I finish washing my face, I *can* use my washcloth to clean the sink. On another day, I might clean the mirror, or the toilet. Last week, the overhead light in our bathroom went out and we were using flashlights for a couple of days. Propped in the corner, the flashlight shone on all the dust that had grabbed onto the texturing on the bathroom walls. It was SO GROSS!!! So, that day, I used my dampened towel to wipe down the walls, at least as far as I could reach, I didn’t get out the step stool. Maybe my husband will read this and feel motivated to get the part I couldn’t 😂. The moral of the story is, just because I can’t fold all the laundry in a day or clean the whole bathroom at once, doesn’t mean I can’t do the laundry or clean the bathroom. I used to think it did, but I have surrendered my perfectionist, critical thoughts to God’s grace and mercy and allowed Him to hold the steering wheel of my life.

 Our verse today says to, “Commit to the Lord whatever you do.” I used to think this meant tell God what I wanted to do and ask Him to bless it. Now I know it actually means to see what He wants to do, and how He wants it done. It means surrender, and in that surrender, I found rest and peace. No, I’m not the greatest housewife. Yes, if you drop by unannounced you’ll probably find clutter and more than a little dog hair on the carpet. But God has helped me, helped us, to find a balance in our home. My husband says it is far better to have a functional wife who is not laid flat by overdoing it, than a marginally cleaner home. He also thinks it’s better for him to pitch in than for me to do more than I should. This has been very difficult for me to see from his perspective, but what I am learning is that I am so blessed! God’s ways are surely higher and better than mine.

Here’s the Thing: Adapting is not failure. It’s quite the opposite, it’s allowing you to do so much more than you otherwise could have. I used to think that using a mobility device was failure and so I allowed myself to be trapped at home, missing out on things that I couldn’t walk or stand through. Now I know that using a mobility device actually lets me do more, see more, be more. It’s the same here with organizing my schedule and balancing my household responsibilities. I used to have an all-or-nothing mentality that said if I couldn’t do all the laundry, I couldn’t do the laundry. Now I know that by doing some of a task, at least some of it gets done, and that’s more than nothing! It seems simple, but it’s so hard to overcome those thinking ruts that we’ve built in our brains.