Looking at Last Week’s Laundry: A Sunday Night Encouragement for the Week Ahead

 

It’s Sunday night and I am looking at the laundry sitting in my living room still from last Tuesday. 

We have lived around this particular load of laundry for almost a week now. I have had intentions of putting it away every day since I folded it. It’s been on my to do list but has been pushed down on the priority totem pole all week. 

Because my week often consists of meeting the needs—allllll the needs—of three young children. Of trying to get myself to bed at a decent hour. Of working a side business from home. Of home schooling. Of cooking meals and 384929374 snacks a day. Of trying to find time to spend with my husband. Or time for myself. Of doing all the dishes, laundry, and planning created by a family of five people. 

And I am tired. Overwhelmed. Impatient. Wanting a break or to escape for some “me time.” It can be hard to be fully present in the midst of all of this. 

Please hear me, I am not complaining. I have an incredibly loving and supporting husband who partners with me to accomplish all these things. I love taking care of these people. It is my life’s calling and truly the life I always dreamed of having. I know how incredibly blessed I am. But I also know I am not alone in the weariness of this season, of this year, of this exhausting, filling, stretching, all-consuming mission that is parenthood. 

It’s Sunday night, and there are dishes in the sink, toys needing to be picked up, and clothes that need to be put away. I like starting the new week fresh, with a clean and tidy house, ready to tackle all the to-dos. I feel anxious not having things in order before I begin to tackle all that is ahead. But it doesn’t always happen.

If you are feeling the weariness of not accomplishing last week’s tasks as the many new tasks of this week are on the horizon, I invite you to breathe with me. Take a breath. Take a pause. Let the peace of God and this truth wash over you: It is okay to rest. In fact, it is more than okay. It is holy and created by God. 

The to do list will always be there, ever growing. Some weeks we will start fresh, with clean sinks and (mostly) empty laundry baskets. Other times we won’t. But either way, we can still choose to make it a good week. To work hard. And in the midst of it all, to pause. Rest. And thank God for this messy, chaotic, sweet, exhausting season. I wouldn’t trade it for all the clean laundry in the world.