The Greater Goal

Goals.  Yesterday was a reminder to me.

We (the kids, my mom, and I) had just returned home after a morning of errands.  We had groceries to unload and my sister and nephew were here to say goodbye to my mom.

Just a few minutes after we got home my mom's friends came by to pick her up and take her away for the weekend.

Six kids.  Three women.  Two friends.  Groceries.  Quick goodbyes.  Lunch time.

How to go from chaos to eating lunch is nearly like preparing to climb Mt. Hood.

So after a half an hour of spinning my wheels, it felt like, God broke through to me.

Two children were fighting and crying about the injury during the argument.  One child was sobbing wildly on the couch because Grandma left.  The three year-old was probably in the middle of the street, and the fifth was attempting to make sandwiches for everyone while creating a huge mess in a kitchen filled with bags of groceries and library books.

I pulled one child away to a side room and we started talking about what was going on.  As we finished I began to help him see where we needed to be going.  My mind was on getting lunch on the table, so I purposed to say that the goal was lunch.  Now.

Instead my mind changed directions and I heard myself say..."my goal is to...teach you all to love God and love each other."

Oh yeah.  That's right.  As much as I'd love order and calm and peace and joy, the reality is those qualities only come by choice.  They don't naturally happen.  (At least at my home they don't.)

But the goal is there, and it's the choices I make in the chaos that will determine whether we arrive or not.

I wish I could say we quickly got lunch together and peace ensued.  Not so.  Lunch ended with a talk on lying and considering others before ourselves.

It's a battle.  A daily battle.

Fixing our eyes on the greater goal.