So I flooded my kitchen a few weeks ago and I was so happy about it. No, for real. I disconnected a dishwasher supply line and made a huge mess. Every towel in our house was being thrown into the kitchen to soak up water, I was laying in the middle of it (completely soaked!), and I couldn't have been happier.
You see, my dishwasher hadn't been working properly for over a year. After an issue with the drying cycle, I completely gave up on it. With a final slam of the door, I told my family to not use it again. It was broken and I was tired of having to deal with rewashing dishes. This dishwasher was hopeless.
It was long after things were fixed, I was dry, the towels were clean that I realized my flooded kitchen could really teach me some lessons.
When we pulled out the dishwasher on a whim to see if it was fixable, I disconnected the supply hose and found that it was clogged. Our water treatment system hadn't been functioning properly and it created more problems than any of us realized. We cleared a bit of the clog from the end of the line. Then the end of the hose started to drip water as my husband said, "did you turn off the water?" No, it's fine. The water never comes out of this hose.
As I was saying that, a huge spurt of water shot out of the hose. Then the flood began. I was saturated and yelling to my husband to turn off the water. My girls were running for towels and blankets, as I laid down in the puddles to try to reconnect the hose and stop the flood. We eventually got the water off, the hose cleaned and reconnected, best of all - the dishwasher was functioning again. It was a miracle.
While I was wiping up the mess, I realized there were tons of little particles in the puddles. It was what had been clogging the supply line. They were all over the floor, so many that it must have been a large clog. One that I wouldn't have found if I hadn't taken the supply line off the dishwasher before we shut the water off. It needed the force of the water to clear out the clog that was causing the issue.
When we give up on something because it's not working well, it's often because of much more than a surface issue. There is something deep in the supply hose that is causing it to not function properly.
An offense with a friend? Little hint - it's not because she canceled your coffee date.
Angry at the church? It's not the off-key worship team.
Frustrated at your children all the time? It's not because they tossed their clean laundry out the window (although that happened at my house once and I got really frustrated!).
Angry at your co-workers? Losing it on your husband?
It's because your supply line - your connection to the Lord - is not clear. As mothers, we are so busy with keeping all the plates spinning, the laundry clean, and the children delivered to where ever it is that they need to go. It's easy for us to let the most important thing slip. We've all heard about how impossible it is to pour from an empty cup. Yet we still clink around empty and dry, expecting water to miraculously fill us without us taking a moment to even ask God to fill us. When the water supply is clogged, the dishes stay dirty. When our connection to God, to our Living Water, is ignored or squashed - our hearts stay dirty, frustrated, angry, uncontrolled.
More than any other thing you'll (hopefully) read on this page, this one thing is what I want you to hear. Take the time to fill your cup. Make sure your supply line is clear and that the Living Water is flowing into your life. Your heart, mind, growth, and peace are just as important to God as those of your children. You matter. Flooding my kitchen was worth it, just for this reminder. We have to be alright with taking time for our own health, spiritual and physical. It's important to God, it's an example to our children, it's crucial for our health.
How do you keep connected to God?
You see, my dishwasher hadn't been working properly for over a year. After an issue with the drying cycle, I completely gave up on it. With a final slam of the door, I told my family to not use it again. It was broken and I was tired of having to deal with rewashing dishes. This dishwasher was hopeless.
It was long after things were fixed, I was dry, the towels were clean that I realized my flooded kitchen could really teach me some lessons.
When we pulled out the dishwasher on a whim to see if it was fixable, I disconnected the supply hose and found that it was clogged. Our water treatment system hadn't been functioning properly and it created more problems than any of us realized. We cleared a bit of the clog from the end of the line. Then the end of the hose started to drip water as my husband said, "did you turn off the water?" No, it's fine. The water never comes out of this hose.
The Water
As I was saying that, a huge spurt of water shot out of the hose. Then the flood began. I was saturated and yelling to my husband to turn off the water. My girls were running for towels and blankets, as I laid down in the puddles to try to reconnect the hose and stop the flood. We eventually got the water off, the hose cleaned and reconnected, best of all - the dishwasher was functioning again. It was a miracle.
While I was wiping up the mess, I realized there were tons of little particles in the puddles. It was what had been clogging the supply line. They were all over the floor, so many that it must have been a large clog. One that I wouldn't have found if I hadn't taken the supply line off the dishwasher before we shut the water off. It needed the force of the water to clear out the clog that was causing the issue.
It's often that way, isn't it?
When we give up on something because it's not working well, it's often because of much more than a surface issue. There is something deep in the supply hose that is causing it to not function properly.
An offense with a friend? Little hint - it's not because she canceled your coffee date.
Angry at the church? It's not the off-key worship team.
Frustrated at your children all the time? It's not because they tossed their clean laundry out the window (although that happened at my house once and I got really frustrated!).
Angry at your co-workers? Losing it on your husband?
It's not just the situation.
It's because your supply line - your connection to the Lord - is not clear. As mothers, we are so busy with keeping all the plates spinning, the laundry clean, and the children delivered to where ever it is that they need to go. It's easy for us to let the most important thing slip. We've all heard about how impossible it is to pour from an empty cup. Yet we still clink around empty and dry, expecting water to miraculously fill us without us taking a moment to even ask God to fill us. When the water supply is clogged, the dishes stay dirty. When our connection to God, to our Living Water, is ignored or squashed - our hearts stay dirty, frustrated, angry, uncontrolled.
More than any other thing you'll (hopefully) read on this page, this one thing is what I want you to hear. Take the time to fill your cup. Make sure your supply line is clear and that the Living Water is flowing into your life. Your heart, mind, growth, and peace are just as important to God as those of your children. You matter. Flooding my kitchen was worth it, just for this reminder. We have to be alright with taking time for our own health, spiritual and physical. It's important to God, it's an example to our children, it's crucial for our health.
How do you keep connected to God?
Comments
Post a Comment