To the exhausted mama – Encouragement in the monotony of repetition

I clean dishes every day. Laundry was scheduled for twice per week, but somehow it needs attention twice per day. My children, professional snackers, never cease to request another dietary provision. And the floor. Good gracious. The demons of crumbs, mulch, leaves, beads and crayons are perpetually alive, dropping traces of themselves across every square inch of opportunity.

Such is life.

Every day we eat. Every day we sleep. Every day we use the bathroom, wash our hands, and communicate with those around us, often repeating the exact same phrases. I love you, stop touching your sister, close the door behind you, get your shoes on. Please!

The mundane can be exhausting, threatening our sanity and wearing us thin while we circulate the carousel of repetition. What’s the point? we wonder. Is it possible to have any value in the monotonous routines of our lives, or are we stranded here forever?

While my instinct is to accept a fate of exhaustion, pausing instead to pick up our Bibles offers another perspective. Perhaps we aren’t as hopeless as we believe.

God created us to live in rhythm. He created a world where a sun would rise every morning and set every night. A moon would orbit the earth on a routine basis. Man would work six days and rest on the seventh. [1] These patterns were instituted at the onset of creation, before the fall of man. The patterns are good. We were made to need food and water regularly, to rest regularly, to be in community regularly. And we can see blessing in it. 

For me, I love my bedtime routine. I love putting on the old, baggy, drab clothes I endearingly call “pajamas”, settling down with a book and bundling under a chunky blanket until my eyes drift shut. I love eating every day. I love refilling my coffee and hugging my family every day.

However, we also experience the curse in routine. Now we hunger and thirst in grievous ways which bring death when not fulfilled. Rest is interrupted. Food impacts our bodies in ways we disdain, coffee stops working, and hugging our growing babies becomes more like trying to capture a human–sized Flubber than it is a mutual exchange of affection. 

We recognize the strain, and we grieve the loss in it. And we look to the author of our lives and patterns for strength to press through, to keep folding that laundry, to order yet another round of groceries. 

Like the age-old phrase, “Rome wasn’t built in a day”, our character and sanctification aren’t completed in a moment either. Rather, the Lord values perseverance. 

You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. (Galatians 6:7-9)

If we live continuously giving in to our flesh, to what’s most comfortable, most glamorous, we will never have the spiritual growth we were created for. Getting lost in the physical realities of this world, it’s easy to divorce from the spiritual realm. But we know they’re always connected. Behavior directs spiritual maturity. 

Reputation works the same way. We don’t trust friends because they showed up for us once, we trust them because they show up again and again. We eat at the same restaurants and order the same food because it is continually satisfying. Faithfulness is built in repetition. 

Still, I think it’s easy to believe we aren’t building anything when we offer another snack or scrape another layer of crumbs off the floor. The lack of audible applause convinces us there is no eye upon us. But mama, we both know this isn’t true.

Our Father is El Roi, the God who sees everything, and he promises to reward our obedience. [2] I can’t help but imagine part of the reward will be when our faith is made sight and the bored, gray filter we see our actions through now will be lifted to reveal the vibrance and sacredness of these everyday actions performed for an audience of one. 

And we’ll see the One was enough.

For the reward we’ll gain this side of eternity is intimacy with the Father who made us and wanted to be with us all along. 

God could have created Adam and Eve, fed them once, and left the garden. But instead he chose to create in a way that would need regular attention. He wants to care for us without stop. He desires to provide, to give, to develop. And he can satisfy our weary hearts when we turn to him in the burnout. He wants us to come to him continuously. [3]

It might feel exhausting to wash dishes every day, and, let’s face it – it is exhausting. But we know a God of provision, a God who is near and a God who comforts. We know a God who speaks and who blesses, and we know he will never leave. We can be proud to stay faithful to the people the Lord has entrusted us with, because he has been faithful to us.

We don’t have to love every moment, and we’re guaranteed days we’ll shamelessly toss our kids the Nutella Uncrustables we promised ourselves we’d never buy. But we can trust the process, confident God sees every detail and praising him this is not the eternal condition we’re confined to. We can learn to see beauty in the original design and purpose in the repetition, continuously looking to the Lord for help along the way. 

[1] Genesis 1-2
[2] Matthew 6: 4, 6, 18
[3] Don’t worry about anything; instead pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7)
Never stop praying. (1 Thessalonians 5:17)

Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. (Matthew 6:33)