Glory in Service

"What?" I asked my darling husband tonight. .. "are you DOING?! It's after 10 pm and you are ringing the doorbell and waking the kids who aren't sleeping!"

That should give you an idea of my night. Even though I thought I may work on the 2007 calendar Christmas gifts, or finish my book, or clean up the kitchen, or make a few phone calls, or actually SIT DOWN. . . I haven't. I've been dashing up and down the stairs like a crazy woman, calming sick children.

Get Livia in bed. Bring the boys downstairs to read books. Dash back upstairs to pat Liv's back and calm her down from her coughing fit. Back downstairs. Take boys upstairs and put to bed. Promise I'll be back to check on them in 15 minutes. Rhyle comes down 6 minutes into the 15 because he "had a bad dream." Take him back to bed. Pat Livvi's back. Start another 15 minutes. Rhyle is calling for me and I give in and go back around minute 9. Bring him downstairs for medicine, then back upstairs. Check Owen. Pat Livvi. Back downstairs. Dash upstairs during Rhyle's coughing fit. Ignore Livvi's whimpering and pray she can handle it. Come back downstairs, thinking I've finally gotten everyone settled. 5 or 10 minutes later I'm sprinting back upstairs to Rhyle, who is crying and coughing and thinks he's about to "have spit ups." Bring him downsatirs. There goes Livvi again. . . Seriously. And I'm sure I'm leaving out a LOT.

But, truly, it is all worth it. These past. . .well, many nights of helping sick children. Isn't this what it's all about anyway?! I love mothering when it seems easy. When my clean, pressed, presentable children behave beautifully and fill me with pride. (Like this morning at church where Owen sat by himself and did magnificently while I sat at the piano for the entire service.) I love mothering even MORE however in moments like these, where I get a glimpse of the holiness of servitude, of being like Christ because of Him. I'll not bask in the glow of a martyr; I'm too tired and plain for that! But I will admit that I treasure these times when I'm given the opportunity to REALLY love my family: because I can, because it's right, and because even though I'm weary, I'm called to this. Elisabeth Elliot calls this "glory in service."