2/3 Full

I work once a week doing book-keeping/accounting at a mid-size Southern Baptist church. I really do love this job and one perk is that the first Tuesday of every month {the day I work, hallelujah} the JOY Club {Just Older Youth...as in over 60} has a covered dish lunch. And I'm invited. Y'all. Do you get the significance here? These are the people who have been doing covered dish/potluck church meals for decades. They know how to do it. I mean, they've perfected the art of a broccoli casserole that's not-too-mushy with a crunchy topping. They know that it's ok to make something spicy because life is too short to eat bland BBQ. They know that it doesn't matter if five people make baked macaroni and cheese because someone {ahem} will have a generous sample all five kinds. 

I could go on, but I am getting hungrier by the word. 

In addition to heavenly food, the group is joined by a guest who does some type of entertainment after the luncheon. I usually excuse myself back to my office at this point {'cause they're paying me to work, not eat}, but last week I stuck around for a bit. The entertainment was provided by Rachelle Denny - a wildly talented musician and speaker. She did a variety show of sorts. She began by reading a recipe for making muffins and comparing the different parts of the recipe to motherhood. After each step of the recipe, she would play a related hymn. She played the piano, an accordion, an instrument that I can only describe as a one-stringed violin, and cow bells. I was mesmerized. 

Having a love for both music and baking, the truths she lovingly shared rang sweetly in my heart. Then, she read the final step of the recipe. {I'm loosely quoting here.}

Fill each muffin cup with batter, filling each cup only 2/3 full. Then bake. 

Sometimes we think that we have to fill the whole cup, but when we do, we end up with a mess of muffin batter spilling over the top of the tin and into the bottom of the oven. We do more than we are supposed to because we think we have do the completing. But the baking soda and the flour and the eggs and the heat work in a chemical reaction to cause the muffins to rise to fullness. God is the same in our lives. We don't have to do it all. We just have follow His instructions and let God do the good work in us. He will do the rising and completing. 

Tears immediately stung my eyes in a knowing that was deeply personal. A loving nudge reminded me - 

I am not asked to be everything.

I am asked to be obedient. 

When I'm not everything for my husband, my kids, my community that I think I should be, I naively believe that everything is going to fall - that nothing will go the way that it is supposed to go. I needed this reminder that God is doing a good work in me. He is doing a good work in my family. He is faithful to bring all things to completion and that doing everything is just not my job. 

It was a grace-filled relief and a message that I am sure I'll need to hear again and again as I navigate my way through being a wife and mother. 

I hope that you had a delightful Mother's Day - celebrating the mothers in your life and being celebrated yourself.

Here are some of my favorite words for mothers from around the www. Enjoy.

For the Mom Who Needs a Simpler Way - Marian Vischer

The Most Life-Giving Thing Every Mother Can Do For Herself - Ann Voskamp

For the Mothers - Emily Freeman