family pic

family pic

Sunday, November 22, 2015

Embracing Chaos as a Single Mother



Dear single mother. It is 10:11 PM and you have collapsed into your bed.

Your bed…covered with sticky notes because your son decided to remove every.single.sticky.note from the stack. Your bed... with a pile of clothes you never hung up on the corner. Your bed which is very likely to end up containing a couple of children by the morning.

You have collapsed into your bed, but your head is still spinning from your daily chaos...followed by a weight of guilt.

"I have got to get on a better schedule. I have got to get the kids to bed earlier.  I didn't even look over son #1's homework... we should have stayed up tonight to look over it. Kid #2 never brushed his teeth. The kids aren't getting enough sleep… "BOYS! STOP TALKING AND GO TO SLEEP"… I shouldn't yell so much. I need to come down harder on the kids. I never got groceries. I forgot to pick up child # 3's prescription. I should hang up these clothes. My house is a mess. My life is a mess."

A one word description of your day would be chaos. Absolute utter chaos. You feel like a complete mess… and, well, let's admit it… You.Are.A.Mess. 

And this is where you expect me to give you a 5 step plan to create a life of peace and order.

But....as I've watched other single families over the years and have analyzed my own life, I've recently concluded that life as a single mom is messy. You can only accomplish so much, by yourself, with only 24 hours in your day. It's not that some tasks might fall through the cracks... but that some tasks will fall through the cracks.

You can choose to live your life... with chaos....and guilt
or
You can choose to live your life... with chaos... and grace. 

You don't get to eliminate the element of chaos. But when you find yourself laying on a pile of sticky notes at 10 O'Clock at night and the weight of guilt threatens to suffocate you, you can wearily place that guilt into the hands of Christ. And rest in the joy and peace of His unconditional love.