Just Give Me Twenty Minutes

If I am going to be honest with you, I can admit that cleaning is NOT my favorite activity. Well, I actually don't mind cleaning when I have time, I just never seem to have time.....or make the time. One of our family's favorite movies has a line that is repeated throughout that states: "Homes are for free expression, not good impressions." I think we have embraced that saying. :-)

If I continue to be honest, I can admit that sometimes this free expression gets the best of me and I just want a clean home. So a few months ago we made a change. Each night we pause our activities about 20 minutes before bedtime to do a whole family cleaning sweep. We call it 20 minute cleaning. 

For this activity, we write down rooms that need to be picked up. The living room, kitchen and dining room are always on the list, but the other rooms make the list when they look like they need a bit of attention. Some rooms, like the playroom often have two pieces of paper, so two people are cleaning that room. Anyway, we write the rooms on small pieces of paper, fold them up and toss them into the air. Each member of the family grabs a piece of paper and is responsible for that room. (the three year old is allowed to help someone with their room and is not responsible for his own room)

There is a built in incentive. If you are able to completely pick up your room in less then the allotted 20 minutes (sometimes only 15 mins), you are encouraged to go and help someone who is still working. When your room is finished and you have helped someone else, you earn a sticker on our incentive chart. Sometimes the room you get is the messiest, so by the end there are many able to help you; sometimes you have the easiest room and have the opportunity to help others.

This means that 3-8 rooms are getting attention each and every evening. The number changes depending on how many people are home at the time. It is truly great to wake up and start each day with a nice, picked up home.

Here are some thoughts behind our process:
-I was noticing that people were not taking care of their own messes. With our chore chart people knew that child x was in charge of picking up the office, so since it wasn't their chore they would choose not to clean up. With 20 minute cleaning, you never know what room you will get, so cleaning up your mess now is often a good idea.
-I was looking for more ways for our children to help and encourage one another without my direction.
-I was really getting tired of picking up the entire home before going to bed. Some of my days are very long and there is often a lack of energy once the sun has set.
-Having help with picking up allows me more time to sit and invest in our marriage relationship.
-Since my husband and I each get a piece of paper also, we are able to model hard work and cooperation on an almost daily basis.
-good stewardship is not just about tithing, it is also about taking care of the items that God has blessed us with....in my mind this includes picking them up and putting them away.

Maybe this is not an area in your family that needs attention. It however, has worked great for our family, so I thought I would share the idea with all of you. You might be able to adapt it to fit a situation in your own home. Investing in your children's learning and giving them the opportunity to contribute to the family is always a winning situation for everyone. 

Where Were You On Easter Sunday?

I have been struggling with this post for some time, but I am finally ready to write my thoughts down.

This past Easter season, there was much discussion among our family and friends about where they would be and what is acceptable for an Easter Sunday event schedule. It seems like everyone had an opinion and most of them were feeling quite strongly about their opinions. I on the other hand, was wavering on my opinion.

Here are some things that my friends or their families were dealing with this recent Easter Sunday.

-attending a professional baseball game

-a son playing in a basketball tournament

-a daughter playing in a volleyball tournament

-a child working at a local restaurant 

-a husband needing to work

-a home full of family guests
-a day spent traveling to or from relatives festivities

With each new situation that friends shared advice and opinions came flooding in. "Easter is sacred" and "no game is important enough to play on Easter" and "Easter worship is the most important service of the year" and so fourth. It seemed a bit strange to me, because I don't remember these debates happening in years prior. I personally have never given much thought to what others are doing on Easter.

I do recall the commandment, "Remember the Sabbath and keep it Holy." But, I think it is safe to say that the expectations with that command have certainly changed over the years. For example, if we continue to read in Exodus, chapter 31 tells us "those who do any work on that day must be cut off from their people." Well, that leaves every pastor, organist, worship leader, Sunday school teacher, usher and worship technician "cut off" from the body of believers. I could be wrong, but it seems silly to me to declare that all church workers are now excluded from the body. This verse in Exodus says, "any work." Therefore, anyone who gardens, does house cleaning, washes their car, or any of those weekend chores we have come so accustomed to doing; seems to me that they are excluded from the body too.

To be completely honest with you, I think there are many people today that have actually started to put church and/or attending  church in front of actually Worshipping God. In my opinion, they have made going to church as important or sometimes even more important than spending time developing their personal relationship with Christ. You know who I am talking about: they are the ones who seem to judge you when you are not in Sunday service, even though you were attending church at your Grandmother's church; the ones who complain every week about the songs, or scripture reading, because after all, the service is really about THEM, and what THEY need; and the ones whom seem to be at every service, every Bible study and every service event, yet seem to have NO JOY to share with others. Don't get me wrong, I know that attending Sunday worship, Bible study and serving others are all extremely important, but they are outward signs of a Faith that is bubbling out of us because the love we have for Christ and the love He has for us, is too large to contain. They are not things that can be FORCED on anyone.

Back to the Easter debate. This debate actually started for me my senior year in high school. I was an active member of our youth group, a Sunday school and VBS teacher, sang special music in church and rarely missed a Sunday worship service. However, when my mother decided that our family would be spending Easter Sunday at Estes Park instead of our home church, I faced negative consequences. You see, I was preparing to attend a Christian college the next fall and needed our pastor to sign some paper commenting on my church involvement in order to apply for some financial aid packages. He refused. He told me that he was concerned about people who missed church service at the height of the festival season. I honestly thought he was joking and laughed. But, he was serious. So I told him that he should be concerned about those who only attended at the height of the festival, and that I would get Vicar Ron to sign my papers. (which he did and I attended the college of my choice) It all worked out, but it is a situation that obviously left an impression.

So when the Easter debate returned to our own home this year, I was slow to make a judgement. What did I want our daughter to remember about this Easter? What did I want her to know? Where were my feelings coming from? Would we allow our daughter to be away from us on Easter? Tough, tough questions, or at least they were tough for me. :-)

I went to college to become a church worker, and although I am officially a stay-at-home mom now, I spent almost all of my working years as a church worker and will really always be a church worker at heart. Church workers see so many families with all of their joys and heartaches. I have seen youth decide to walk away from the Christ because of one fight with their parents over church. No matter what is going on in our children's lives, the number one priority for me is to help them spend eternity with Jesus. In my mind this Easter debate could have become our "one fight." So, I wanted to make sure that I thought long and hard about this Easter debate. Did I feel strongly enough either way to take a firm stand?

Well, not to spoil the ending, but we let our daughter go with her team and play in a National Qualifier this past Easter weekend. It was a tough decision. It was also tough fielding the criticism. The decision came down to a desire for our daughter to honor God no matter what she is doing. We want her being an disciple of Christ in school and out, in church and out, on the court and off. We want her to know that it is ok to Worship in an unfamiliar church that holds our same views of scripture. But, what really drove our decision is that we don't want her to feel guilty or shamed when she is grown and finds that she needs to work on Easter. (FYI, who do you think is making and serving all those Easter brunches that families attend.....people working on Easter) As she grows, there is a legitimate chance that she will need to work an Easter or two during college or as a young adult. She needs to know/test herself and her faith, and I would much rather her tackle these struggles under my care than when she is first starting to live on her own.

The great thing she and many of us need to remember is that more and more churches are now having services on Saturdays or during the week. There are Bible studies offered throughout our community on almost everyday of the week. Our own personal Bibles are available to us all day, everyday. Our faith and hers is something that we need to live out Everyday, Everywhere and to Everyone. Spending time in Worship needs to be a priority! The rigidness of when and where, in my opinion, needs to be left to personal conviction. What is most important is the fact that Christ died for all of us, and that He is Risen. He is Risen indeed, Alleluia!!