Picture if you will a Sunday evening at our home. It is about 6:00, and people are gathering around our kitchen, drinking coffee and eating various snacks, laughing, talking, catching up on the week. Occasionally you see a flash of a child go by, a little hand reaches up over the counter to grab a cookie. Several moms have babies on their hips. This is our Home Fellowship Group, and soon we will move to the living room where we will sing a few songs, have a time of prayer, share and spend time in God’s word together. I love seeing everyone together, and I am so glad we are doing it.
Doesn’t that sound inviting? Now, let me rewind a bit. It is 5:00, and we are preparing for people to come. One of my children has had a potty accident, the girls haven’t cleaned up their rooms like I had asked them and I notice a pile of laundry by the front door. My husband has decided this is a good time to touch up the paint on the window. One of my sons is attempting to break a record with how many times he can run around the room. I’m feeling insecure about my housekeeping abilities, everyone will see I still haven’t dusted the chandelier (and it’s not Halloween so I can’t use that as my excuse.) It is around this time I ask my husband, “Why, exactly, are we doing this again?”
Don usually says something like “Because this is what it’s all about!” That response doesn’t always bring thoughts of joy and love to my mind. But he’s right. When I read God’s word to us, the constant encouragement for believers is to gather together and to rejoice together. Hebrews 10:23 tells us: “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”
It is my habit to withdraw from the body when I feel discouraged. When things are rough; maybe there is stress in my marriage, with my children, or with other believers, I want to keep to myself. Or maybe it’s my pride, like I mentioned earlier, my house isn’t clean enough… my kids aren’t well-behaved enough… or I just don’t feel like I have my act together enough to face other believers. I don’t want people to see my flaws. But often, I need a firm reminder: that is not what we are called to do. I don’t want other women thinking I have it all together. I want younger women to know I struggle, but with God’s faithfulness and mercy, I persevere, and I lean totally on His strength. What keeps me loving my children and my husband is God’s love for me. What keeps me loving His people is God’s love for me. I also want my children to see us open our home, to share our lives, to learn practically that it’s not all about our family and our needs, that we are part of a bigger family.
Of course, I look forward to those Sundays where we can take a night off and relax with just my family, and have some reprieve from the stresses of hosting. My children are usually disappointed, they love having the other kids over and playing with the babies. But when I feel the temptation to pull away, to close the door and turn off the porch light, God’s word is a wonderful reminder to me of His promises of sweet fellowship. My husband once said after a great meeting together of good fellowship, “Man! That is what heaven is going to be like, only better!” Yes, indeed. And I won’t have to hide my laundry behind the shower curtain. (Shh. Don’t tell.)
(Posted by Robin St. Denis, our daughter in Jacksonville)
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