Ordinary Tasks for an Extraordinary God!

"Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people." Colossians 3:23

This morning I woke up with a lot on my to do list, as I do on a very regular basis. I'm a stay at home mom of two young children and my husband works around 50 hours a week and is in school taking classes to finish up his degree, so that leaves me with a lot to do around the house. As any of you with children know, when you clean or organize a room in your house, it is inevitably going to be messy again within a twenty four hour period if your children are allowed within a 10 foot radius of that room! Not only do I find myself cleaning up and organizing rooms almost every day at some point during the day, I have found that the dishes don't clean themselves, meals don't make themselves, children aren't naturally squeaky clean, bills don't pay themselves and my body doesn't tone and strengthen itself. On top of the normal chores of every day life, there are added things on the to do list, such as doctors appointments, church ministries, volunteering, activities to go to and be apart of that my children are involved in, Bible study to prepare for, friends to spend time with, school functions, phone calls to make, emails to return, and the list goes on. Most of the time I find myself going about these chores and activities in my life with a to do list attitude, seeking only to be able to check it off my list when it is accomplished. Sometimes I go about these things with a less than happy attitude and grumble quietly to myself (sometimes not so quietly) as I have to wash my 50th dish of the day or pick up the 100th toy that has found its way in the direct path my feet are taking.
God wants more of us than an obligatory attitude towards whatever tasks we find ourselves doing. Everything we do, whether it seem very important or absolutely insignificant is to be done as if we were given that task directly from the Lord. If the Lord came down and asked you to personally do something would you do it halfheartedly? I doubt it! And the truth is, everything we do is for the Lord. It honors Him when we cheerfully go about our every day tasks of taking care of the family he has blessed us with. Every day you wake up and take a breath is another day God has given you and there is purpose in every day, even the seemingly ordinary days. So the next time you find yourself picking up that toy that you know you've picked up ten times already that day or find yourself volunteering at your child's school for yet another program or event, or pick up your husbands dirty socks that always seem to land a few feet away from the hamper, take a moment and thank God that He gave you another day on this earth to do these things for your family and more importantly for Him!