Today was a rough day for my 4 year old. He got up groggy, lagged in getting dressed, and didn't seem to want to get ready, and yet, when we told him he'd miss school, and miss the Christmas Party they were going to have, he became upset. So we finally got him going, finally got him ready (I was a little late to the office), but finally got him back on routine. Typically, we get to my office, he turns on the light at the entrance to the hallway, open up both office doors, he turns on the lights, and then he proceeds to pick out my one-cup coffee pod, waits for the coffee to be made, and throws the spent pod away. It's part of our daily routine. If something disrupts it (like a light being left on in the church), it causes the 4 year old some distress; he's used to the daily routine. Yet something I know about that routine: he gets to help dad; he spends time with dad, and he gets to feel useful. It's all done out of, in, and though love; at the end of it all, I always hear his sweet little voice tell me "Daddy, I love you and I like you," before we walk to school.
Why do I bring this up? Because many of us also have daily routines. Yet, many of us also get tired of it, feeling toward the mundane, and at times, even feeling depressed by what we see as a rut. What if, like my 4 year old, instead of looking at it as mundane, we sought, instead of self-gratification, to seek our Father's pleasure in doing the things we do? What if that first part of the routine, as is my 4 year old's near daily habit, we spent the first bit with dad, and did everything else FOR dad? If every breath, though, and action was for "Abba" our heavenly father, and we sought to bring Him honor and Glory in all we did, would it seem so mundane? If in loving our families, friends, neighbors, coworkers, classmates, and whomever else crossed our paths for the sake of Christ and the Gospel, would it feel like a routine? For the believer, love should be our motivator. All we do should be for the Father, and out of love for those made in His image.
Romans 14:5-9
One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.
