Doing Ordinary Well

You guys, I feel like I type that phrase a lot “you guys”.  I might use it too much, but I feel like I know you people so “you guys” feels appropriate.  Anyways…you guys, I have been so out of sorts lately I feel like I haven’t had a thing to really type.  We’ve been in the thick of life, but in a good way.  Things are busy and our day-to-day is full.  So many things to get done in the short 24 hours and sleep is at the far end of the list these days.  I’m tired!

One thing God keeps reminding me is to do what we’ve been given to do with great care and love…do what needs to be done…the ordinary…well.  Sometimes I trick myself into thinking I need big, grand plans to serve the Lord, in reality I just need to do what needs to be done with extraordinary love for Him.  We have to buy groceries so talk with the people at the grocery store.  We know our Kroger peeps by name and they know us.  Ask people about themselves, hand out compliments like crazy and encourage, encourage, encourage.  Kids have to be taken to school.  Bake cookies for those relentless teachers who are in the car rider line every single morning…God bless their souls…extra jewels in their crowns.  Bag up extra cookies for your kids teachers…goodness knows they need them.  When someone crosses your mind don’t let them not hear they were on it.  Let them know…text, email, mail a card.  I personally love a good snail mail to show up it our mailbox.  It makes my day.  We need to hear we’re thinking about each other.  Let’s pray for each other and then let each other know were doing so.  It’s a spirit lifter.  Isn’t it nice to know were not doing this life solo…we’re in it together.  And isn’t it funny how all too often the people who are closest to us…like my favorite Josh Kelley…they get overlooked in this department.  I’m so bad at assuming he just knows he’s on my mind or I’m praying for him.  I need major improvement in this area.  Everyday I see more and more how loving God and loving others is not complicated like I make it sometimes.  I want to go into each day with an open heart, open eyes and open hands.

We’ve been slightly consumed with our foster parenting lately.  We might have procrastinated until the bitter end to get in all our required training before our 1 year date.  This means Josh Kelley and I have been having lots of Monday/Thursday date nights in a DCS office.  Romantic and swoony right?!?!  Nothing says hot date night like a Jersey Mikes sub, a 2004 government slide show and a handful of hard candy.  We’ve also found ourselves spending more and more time with our littlest’s parents.  I told Josh the other day I feel more like a grandmother now.  It feels like we’ve gained 2 adult kids and a granddaughter.  We love this couple.  We love their daughter.  And the more time we spend with them the more we get to know them and their personalities and the more our love just grows.  We are cheering them on and going crazy in the stands…running plum out onto the field in celebration to say “We are for you!  We are in this together!”

We all sat around a big table, along with some of their family, eating pizza to celebrate our littlest’s momma’s birthday.  I found myself getting lost in the sanctity of the moment.  These are the things only God does.  These are the moments only He can orchestrate and invite us to be apart of.  Two families brought together by not an ideal situation and yet there we were…eating, laughing, singing happy birthday and polishing off almost an entire Baskin Robbins Oreo ice cream cake.  What a privilege God allowed us to be apart of.  This foster parent gig is not easy, but man oh man, what an honor.

I don’t know if any of this makes sense or not.  My heart feels like a hot mess 98.1% of the time, but I know there is great love to be found in the ordinary…in the mundane day-to-day…that we can indeed show Jesus to those around us just by doing the ordinary things well and with great love.

Here’s to another ordinary Wednesday filled with extraordinary love opportunities.