Our boys are still at the ages where they like mom to lay down with them at night as they fall asleep. Each night I get the plea,
“ Mom will you please lay down with us?”
“Mom, you have to lay down with me, too!”
and pretty much each night I do. We are going to sleep these days to the melodious sounds of DC Talk. Each boy gets one song ( unless I inadvertently fall asleep…ahem) to drift off to dream land. Usually, it doesn’t even take the entire song.
There are many nights when I have to choose to stop and do this. I have so many other things that need to be done. Good things. It’s a good thing to clean the kitchen at night. It’s a good thing to make sure we have clothes to wear for the next day. Some days, for my sanity’s sake, it’s a good thing for me to sit and watch a favorite tv show. Threw that one in just in case you thought all my “good things” were so noble as the first two.
I am sure you have your list of “goods” as well–especially if you are a single mom. I have had a few nights here recently when my husband’s work schedule had me solo parenting. Many of you have the same situation. Many of you are single moms for other reasons. Whatever the cause, time is precious to a single mama. She has much to do and not much time to do it in. The list of “goods” doesn’t just battle for the time of mamas, but of so many of us just as women. We have “good” things that need to be done that limit our time with others. Time that they may so desperately need and we will be called to lay down. When that girlfriend calls and you can tell her heart is heavy, but you were just on your way to do this or that. When your aging parents require a trip to Wal-Mart, a trip you know will take an entire afternoon that you really just don’t feel like you have to spare. When that neighbor needs to be run here or there, calls you last minute to see if you can facilitate him or her, and completely changes your plans for the one day you had off.
There are lots of “good” things that we need to be doing. Scripture tells us to keep doing the good (Galatians 6:9). It does not, however, tell us to get caught up in it. The Word does not tell us to place doing the “good” above all else. Above love. Above relationship. Above investing into others.
This week I have been to a fundraiser for a father of 3 fighting cancer. His list of “goods” has probably changed. This week one of the boys in the AWANA group I work with lost his mom to cancer. His “good” is different now, as is his entire family’s. You have similar experiences I am sure. The family whose child requires more than they ever thought. The couple fighting for their marriage. The spouse carrying the load of the family, due to some injury or illness that has come upon his or her loved one. All of their “good things” they thought needed to be done before have changed.
What I pray for us all is that it doesn’t take a major event to put our “good” things into perspective. I pray we would have hearts that seek what God esteems above what we think He does. I pray our desire to be seen as a good friend, a good mother, a good wife, a good whatever doesn’t trump the very ones we are trying to be good to.
While we continue to do the “good” things on our list, as we should, Lord helps us to remember what You desire. Give us sensitive spiritual ears to hear the nudgings of Your Holy Spirit that we may know when to lay down our “good” things for holy opportunities, no matter how small they seem to us, You place before our feet and hands.
