Be all there

I believe it was Jim Elliot who said, "Wherever you are, be all there." I happened upon this quote the other day and it has stuck with me.

"Wherever you are...."

Most of the time I'm here. Home. I really don't go anywhere... and when I do, I'm never alone. But mostly... I'm home.

But am I "all there"? No. Sad to say, I'm not often "all [here]". 1 Timothy 5:13 mentions widows, young widowed women, who become idlers (obviously a bad thing), "going about from house to house...." I certainly don't have the time, inclination or energy to be going about from "house to house." Forget about the fact that we have only one car.

I do however have [ahem] time to sit at my computer and read blog after blog. And as they say, the internet is the new way to be "going about from house to house." Another way to do this is on the phone, but I knew of this one early on and (most of the time) make a point of limiting phone talking. But computer time is tricky. You can sit down quick to check email or look up a recipe for dinner and before you know it you're just looking at one (more) quick thing and an hour has passed by.

And so many days I'd rather dwell in someone else's beautiful "blog-life" (that is the little part of their life that they let us see) than to live in the messy one here.

I'm certain I'm not the only one to ever feel this way.

And the ironic part is that it is all so much messier when I'm sitting there at that computer. The house remains uncleaned. Children play, left to themselves to bicker or be wild. Mommy loses her patience because what she is doing is being interrupted. And children are being put off with a "wait" or "not right now, mommy's finishing this" or "in a minute."

I've been thinking of Jesus these past few days, as it relates to His ministry and this quote by Jim Elliot. "Wherever you are, be all there." Story after story in Scripture shows us that Jesus was never too busy, never too distracted. Wherever he was, he was all there.

This is so easy to talk about. So easy to decide we need to change. Actually being "all here", all day -- every day... that's harder.

But this is my heart. Day 2 of the 31 Days to Clean challenges me to add life to my home. Day 3 gives me a list of 10 things that could do that. But for me, breathing fresh life into my home needs to begin with me... being. all. here.


Find other "31 Days" thoughts from this week here to learn why I want to clean!


Linking up...

Labels: Keeping My Home, Raising Children, Suzy meets P31

posted by ~Babychaser~ @ 2:53 PM