Real Life, Real Expectations

Last week at Summer Quest (aka Vacation Bible School) my kitchen got terribly out of balance. I had worked so hard preparing to keep it clean for the crazy busy week and well.... you can see what happened by looking at the picture to the left. It was so bad by Friday morning when I went to find a pot to boil an egg and a knife to spread butter on my wheat toast......there was not one clean pot to boil my egg or one clean knife to butter my toast. That's when I knew everything was out of balance. Oh... did I mention I ran out of Cascade? That's what made it worse. Yes, nothing to wash them except for good ole fashioned dish soap.

FAILURE...screamed loudly accusing me of being a horrible homemaker. (Whoa, Whoa....wait.. that's not what I need to be thinking.) My sweet husband reminded me that I was not a failure. I had been busy doing kingdom work. He reminded me of the JOY I experienced teaching God's word. Yes....the joy of teaching God's word was gettting covered by the unrealistic expectations of having a perfect home.

So three washes later, I had a clean sink!

This post is not an excuse to have a dirty home, but it did remind me to keep a real perspective about times when life gets a little busy. So, I was able to laugh at my kitchen (it didn't look like my favorite magazines... Southern Living, Traditional Home, Country French..... )because I understood life was real and real life needed to have real expectations. I am not super woman or Martha Stewart. I'm just Ashley and I can't do everything all the time. My home doesn't look like a magazine and that is ok! All I could do was start one wash at a time. Looking at the entire covered sink kept me from remembering the JOY I experienced teaching little ones about Jesus.That was way more important than keeping the sink clean one day.

Thank you God for still using me even when my sink is an absolute mess.

Tell me of a time when GOD still used you despite your unrealistic expectation.