Cheerios In My Running Shoes

Matthew 10:38-39, “If you don’t go all the way with me, through thick and thin, you don’t deserve me. If your first concern is to look after yourself, you’ll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you’ll find both yourself and me.” (MSG)

This morning started out the same as the many others before it. I woke up and read my daily devotional Bible, then spent a few minutes reading a nonfiction book on Christian living in hopes that I would glean some deep spiritual wisdom in five minutes or less. All too soon, the familiar noises began to assault my brief period of quiet. The sound of feet running around upstairs indicated that I better get up and see about breakfast for the family instead of investing more time in me. I wish I could tell you I got up and headed to the kitchen with a song in my heart, but I didn’t. Instead I had an attitude. I wanted more—more time, more peace, more quiet. I didn’t want to surrender myself to my kids and their needs.

As the morning progressed I went through the motions of a normal day—laundry, dishes, housework, and checking off the items on my to-do list. But my attitude towards my kids didn’t get any better. The baby was fussy, the kids begged for snacks just an hour after breakfast, the couch cushions kept getting knocked to the floor, and I remembered I had to trek across town for an orthodontist appointment. Not my idea of a great morning! I was grumpy with everyone. “Why can’t you guys be still?” I asked. “Why are you always hungry?” “Can’t you just quietly watch tv?” Inside I pictured myself as the ideal mother, reading great children’s literature out loud to them, followed by a morning of crafts. But on the outside, I was falling far short of this ideal image.

I thought about the run I had planned to go on, and grumbled in my heart about how I never have time for stuff I want to do. As I rounded the corner and spotted my running shoes lying uselessly on the floor, I noticed something was in them: the toddler had carried her baggie of dry cereal into my room and proceeded to fill my running shoe with them. Oh well, I sighed, at least someone is using them for something! I made a mental note to shake them out before I wore them the next time.

Recently a friend sent me a devotion she had written about motherhood. In it, she wrote about a moment when another woman shared with her that a mother’s objective is to put her kids ahead of herself. As I read her words, this concept jumped off the page at me. What seems to be simple—maybe even a given to some—is not something that comes naturally to me. Putting my kids and their needs ahead of my own is a struggle. I get so bound up in my own desires, my own tasks, my own goals that I forget to lay all that down in the name of serving my children. As I look to God to equip me to do this, He points me once again to the model of His Son.

Jesus addressed the issue of serving others when He gave the disciples instruction in Matthew 10. He warned that sometimes following Him meant nothing more than laying down our own agenda in the name of His. It means doing the small things with great joy and humility instead of always looking for the big prize. He urged the disciples to start small. He went on to say, “Give a cup of cool water to someone who is thirsty, for instance. The smallest act of giving or receiving makes you a true apprentice. You won’t lose out on a thing.” (Matthew 10:42, MSG).

If I truly want to live a life pleasing to God, if I desire to serve Him through ministry, then perhaps the greatest act I will do all day isn’t the big and noteworthy item on my to-do list, but the smallest, most insignificant, most unnoticed item. The things that don’t even make it onto my to-do list—pouring the cereal, fixing a sippy cup of juice, wiping down the fingerprinted windows, hugging my precious children. Sometimes, I realized, serving God and being Jesus’ apprentice might just mean cleaning the Cheerios out of my running shoes with a smile, and being grateful that today I’m not running away from home, I am rejoicing in the midst of it.

Matthew 20:26-28, “Whoever wants to be great must become a servant. Whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave. This is what the Son of Man has done; He came to serve, not be served– and then to give away his life in exchange for the many who are held hostage.” (MSG)