Lesson from the freezer

Behold! The door of my basement freezer! I was adding flour from the coop order when God intervened. So here's whats in the door of my freezer: frozen blueberries; at least eight kinds of flour including quinoa, tapioca, almond, white rice, corn, brown rice; dairy and soy free chocolate chips, raspberry sorbet, gluten and dairy free chicken and turkey hot dogs, gluten and dairy free ground turkey, sweet potatoes fries, Ezekiel 4:9 bread (not gluten-free).

Big deal right? A little different from your freezer door probably, but why post it? Sometimes as a stay-at-home mom, I feel like my brain is atrophying. Not learning enough. I get bored with housework, cooking, and sometimes with childcare. I long to learn. I love learning. I could happily be a lifelong student. For this season of life though, staying home is right for me and I am privileged to be able to make such a choice. But I want the challenge of learning something and mastering it. Most of the time bathing kids, cleaning up messes, trying to keep things organizing are not the challenges I crave and the messes and the organizing are not the challenges I ever permanently conquer. Sometimes I whine to God about it ( so the verse I repeat to my children is in head after this confession..Do everything without complaining or arguing that you may become blameless and pure, children of God...except it's in a catchy song form from some CD that we have)


Back to the freezer door...God intervened in my chore. "Look" God whispered to me, "Look what you have learned about and researched. You know what each of these flours is for, how to use them. You know 30 times more about nutrition than you did three years ago. I know you never asked for food allergies, but you are welcome."* He knows our desires and provides what we need. He is personal and hears our cries, be they cries of pain or of boredom. Since that freezer moment I've thought of many things God has given me to learn since I quit working a salaried job. I thought I wasn't learning much, but I was wrong. I just wasn't learning in a school setting as I am used to. I am so blessed.

*So I didn't really hear a whisper but the quotations seemed the most effective way to communicate what God taught me. God spoke in that internal way where the message is just there--like it had been written on my heart at birth in preparation for this moment and I just now discovered it.