On a Mission

I am a mother on a mission, and heaven help anyone who gets in my way. For the past two weeks I have been eating, sleeping, and breathing one thing: Organization! I've done all the bedrooms, the kitchen, the closets, and most daunting—the garage.

For some reason the men in my life (hubby and three sons) seem to live by an unspoken code: Hang on for dear life to every single item that has ever come into your possession. Whether you know what the item is or where it came from or what to do with it is irrelevant. The bottom line is, every slip of paper, every piece of hardware, every broken-down basketball hoop, every ball that consistently loses its air, keep it! Needless to say, this complicates my organizational mission considerably.

Still, I persevere—even though no one else gives a flying rip if the 1/2-inch washers are mixed up with the 1/4-inch washers, or if the garden insect sprays are on the same shelf as the common household insect sprays rather than with the rest of the gardening paraphernalia. Honestly, I don't even care … except in the heat of the moment when all that matters is stacking the 300 pads of paper we've managed to accumulate according to size—legal on bottom all the way up through sticky-note pads on top.

I embark on missions quite frequently. Oddly my husband uses another term to describe my episodes of extreme productivity: Obsession. Sometimes my mission is to find the best deal in the western U.S. on a Little Tikes sandbox. Other times it's to track down the insurance mistake that says we owe $300 for my husband's pap smear. It might be a push to finish reading a book I'm really into, or to clip all the coupons for the week's grocery list.

Not long ago, my mission was to institute a family house cleaning day. I wrote each of the guys' names on the big white board in the kitchen with a healthy list of chores underneath and commissioned them with this little motivational gem: "Don't even think of having fun of any sort until all the chores are finished and checked off."

Returning to my own tasks in the kitchen, I glanced up at the white board filled with the day's assignments. There beside his name, in classic second-grade penmanship, Chandler had scrawled simply, "Enjoy Saturday."

I remembered Chandler's words last weekend in the midst of my organizational frenzy. It was a warm, sunny day, and everyone was occupied in some way or other except for baby Charli and me. I was tempted to turn on cartoons to keep her busy for a few minutes and return to my relentless pursuit. Instead I followed Chandler's instructions. I peeled off Charli's clothes, put her in the backyard wading pool and sat down with an ice cold soda. To think I could have missed that 22-month-old wonderbaby splashing around in the cool water and giggling for all she's worth as the water puffed her diaper up the size of Fred Flintstone's bowling ball. The thought lingered in my mind, "If this is as good as it gets, it's good."

Being on a mission is not a bad thing. There are things that just need to be done, missions that must be accomplished. Clothes must be washed, groceries bought, 1/4-inch washers sorted from the 1/2-inch. (Well, maybe not the washers.) But the key is to keep a clear perspective on what is truly important in our lives. There are times when the mission of the moment must take a back seat to the message on the board:

"Enjoy Saturday."

• • •

A note from Elisa:

Dear Mom,

There are 86,400 seconds in a day. That's a lot. Until we start to get to the business of life. Then those seconds start to fly by like dusty snowflakes on a country road. It's so hard to remember what really matters when there's just so much matter about our days! The Psalmist prays, "Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom" (Psalm 90:12). Mom, "number" today and you won't miss it tomorrow. Okay, only 85,859 seconds to go. Count them!

Lisa Johnson is a writer, speaker, and recording artist from Southern California. Learn more about her at www.candykissesmuddyhugs.com.

Elisa Morgan is president of MOPS International. Call (800) 929-1287 or go to www.mops.org for information about a MOPS group in your area.

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