Joy - It's the Little Things

Happy early Labor Day everyone! Today we're talking about labor over on Blessed Is She.

I talked about the birthing babies kind of labor earlier this week, but today we're going to address the kind of labor we do every day. Those daily strivings for sanctity and survival.

I am absolutely terrible at taking it easy or procrastinating. It's like I have a constant reel going in my head of "All the Things I Could Be Doing Right Now".

Thankfully, I'm good at prioritizing the reel. I typically manage to feed everyone, keep the babies safe, maintain the house at decent level of clean, and still do my newest crazy idea.

But I run into problems when I start to resent those first three things. The things that I have to do because I am a mother and this is my job right now.
Come to find out, I don't love changing diapers, washing dishes, and chopping onions. But that doesn't mean they are not valuable and important tasks.

What I have to do is decide to find the joy within these necessary tasks. The giggles and snuggles that happen after the diaper change. The exclamations of "I like it momma" when the 3 year decides he did like roasted chicken after all. The time we are blessed with in the evenings, after Matt comes home, because I've managed to get almost all of the chores done during the work day.

Finding joy in labor is the difference between surviving and thriving. It's what keeps me from resenting this season in my life.

That is not to say you have to just LOVE EVERY MOMENT OF EVERY DAY! That's not realistic, and kind of terrible advice. If you love every moment of every day, I think you might be lacking some ability to discern between good things and not good things.

I think of joy as small attitude decisions we can make every day. It's seeking the bigger picture and thinking beyond the now. You don't have to love every moment of your life to love your life.