The Highly Undisciplined Mom

"Coleridge is the supreme tragedy of indiscipline. Never did so great a mind produce to little. He left Cambridge University to join the army; he left the army because he could not rub down a horse; he returned to Oxford and left without a degree. He began a paper called The Watchman, which lived for ten numbers and then died. It has been said of him: 'He lost himself in visions of work to be done, that always remained to be done. Coleridge had every poetic gift but one--the gift of sustained and concentrated effort.' In his head and in his mind he had all kinds of books, as he said, himself, 'completed save for transcription. I am on the even,' he says, 'of sending to the press two octavo volumes.' But the books were never composed outside Coleridge's mind, because he would not face the discipline of sitting down to write them out. No one ever reached any eminence, and no one having reached it ever maintained it, without discipline."
~William Barclay speaking of Samuel Taylor Coleridge


Imagine re-writing this about the highly undisciplined Mom.

"She was the supreme tragedy of indiscipline. Never did so great a mind produce so little. She set up her home and had great plans for organizing everything and planning meals for her family and keeping things tidy. But she found Facebook and blogging more interesting and just couldn't settle down long enough to figure out what to cook for dinner. She bought expensive homeschool curriculum but couldn't stay focused and got tired of planning lessons after a few weeks. She knew it was important for her children to obey, but after correcting them over and over for the same things, she convinced herself it was impossible. She meant to write those letters of encouragement and to bring her neighbor a meal, but tomorrow always seemed a better time to do it. She kept meaning to teach her children about the LORD and tell them about His mighty deeds, to sit down and listen to them and look them in the eye and know them, but those good intentions never moved her mouth or hands, and really, never her heart."

Our goal as Moms isn't to reach a place of eminence, but to be faithful to what God has called us to do. We don't want to be visionaries who made great plans and never saw them through, to be known as the Mom who always said she'd do something but never got around to doing it. We don't want to look at our children as they leave to make homes of their own and wished we created more memories with them, had prayed for them more, spent more time with them in the Word, prepared them better for eternity.

Even if you're supremely organized, you still might battle the temptation to do everything but spend time with your children and discipline them or disciple them. Every day we have to remind ourselves that our time is not our own and that our flesh is naturally drawn to time wasters that leave strong aftertastes of regret.

"Where your priorities are, there your time will be."
~Gordon MacDonald

Here are a few ways to guard against the undisciplined life:

~begin each day in prayer and in the Word

~Pray for the Holy Spirit's power to use your time wisely and do the hard things

~have a framework for the day, if not a schedule

~remember your time is not your own and you may not have tomorrow

~ask God to show you time wasters in your life and give you the discipline to let them go

~do the most dreaded task first

~make a list of things you've been promising to do with your children and then do them (Color with them. Read with them. Take them to the park. Bake cookies with them.)

~Consider what you would regret not having done the most if you were to die tomorrow. Make those things a priority, not out of fear, but out of wisdom.

~make a list of your roles and what you need to accomplish each week in each role (i.e. teacher, accountant, sister, daughter, etc.)

"Remember a long life of steady, consistent, holy labor will produce twice as much fruit as one shortened and destroyed by spasmodic and extravagant exertions; be careful and sparing of your strength when and where exertion is unnecessary."
~William Booth's wife writing to him when he was away on an extended trip


May God pour out His grace on us that we might be steady and consistent holy laborers for His glory.

With love,
Trisha

***all quotes from one of my favorite books, Ordering Your Private World by Gordon MacDonald...and no, I don't remember if there's anything "mystical" in it. I do know it's highly practical. :)