We have a vast expanse of our basement called “the playroom.” It is a children’s zone in the true sense of the word, with no attempt to be aesthetically pleasing, or even orderly, more like a free for all, where any and every object can be used for whatever purpose a child might imagine (oh, how I marvel at what they can imagine!) Kids can literally swing from the rafters there, as we've set up swings, rope ladders and hanging bars for that express purpose. Right now the toy boxes are being used to create giant fortress walls by my engineering sons. It is their wonderland. But to me, the play room is in a state of complete disorder and unrest. (As in I can't rest when ever I think about it and therefore choose to never think about it!) There are toys—hundreds of them smaller than the size of a quarter—as far as the eye can see. Lego pieces, hair bands, rubber bands, pencils, erasers, Barbie shoes, old chap stick lids, plastic easter baket ‘grass’, dollar store plastic bugs (praying mantis, flies, dragon flies, butter flies, beetles, etc). And that's just a very partial list. Truly, it is what an adult, this mother in particular, considers a waste land. (As in I don’t want to waste my time cleaning it up cause it will all come out again tomorrow) .
But today I’d had enough of the mounting chaos and ventured down, eyes half shut, face grimaced, to tackle the mountain sized problem.
“I really don’t care for much of this,” I mused, “Can’t I just burn it all down to the ground and start over?” That sounded so much easier than the digging, the picking, the questioning, the deciding should it stay or should it go now? But truthfully, I’m no arson and I’m not going to burn down my playroom. Actually, I reckon there’s likely a few treasures there amid the broken McDonald’s toys.
Do you suppose God ever feels this way when he looks down at his Earth? “Boy have those kids of mine really made a mess of things, (again)! This is going to take forever to clean up! Couldn’t they just keep things cleaned up once I’d fixed them? I’m just gonna have to burn this place down and start over with a clean slate*"
God knows better than I do that this is just the way kids learn. He gives them a pristine, untouched Earth for a proving ground and they have many an accident there. They experiment, they play, mess things up. Its all apart of learning and growing. That natural man is untidy, disorderly, unruly. And that’s just the 7 year old kid version! I’m hoping that when he looks down on us he sees a few treasures mixed in with the junk. Likely he sees much more treasure than I do, and I see quite a bit. Hopefully we’re learning our lessons, sorting out the good from the bad, the junk from the treasure, the worthwhile from the McDonalds toys.
(And this my dears is why my basement never gets clean. . .instead of finishing the job I run upstairs to write down my thoughts about it.. .whoa unto me!)
7 comments:
We're glad you can express your thoughts so eloquently and forget the mess in the playroom.
who knew cleaning the basement could be so spiritual? I think you should write a church talk on it, and I think you should take some garbage bags down there and chuck anything that you aren't totally sure of, seriously, you'll feel better, and your soul will be cleansed!
I am probably much too apt to just throw things away. It feels so good until someone asks for something recently pitched. But I get too overwhelmed with the volumes of stuff. Why so much stuff?
But when your children reflect on how they gained their testimony. it most surely will involve one of Mom's analogies.
I have been dejunking with abandon and it does feel good on certain levels. . .it just doesn't come naturally. I have to convince myself that someone somewhere might actually like playing with this toy and then when I take it to D.I. I feel like it is fulfilling its destiny. Weird, I know!
Beautiful thoughts. Your basement sounds like a delightful place for kids. I really wish we had a basement (basements aren't built here because of water level issues). Jared is my de-junker man. And, we recently went through some toy purging ourselves. When I explained to Ian and Chris (the owners of the most junk) that some other kid who doesn't have a lot of toys could play with it, they seemed to have no problem turning in about two-thirds of their stuff. Apparently, they weren't very attached to most of it. I can't say that toy purging comes as easily to my other two. Hope it all goes well!
What an uplifting thought. I will never look at the kids playroom the same again.
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