Oh the Beautiful Chaos on My Kitchen Table! by Emily Carter

This is not what my kitchen table looks like!!

My kitchen table could describe my life right now. On it sit:
• a white bowl of fruit with two, slightly aged apples and one delicious looking navel orange
• an empty juice container that is being reused as a pencil holder
• a container of artificial sweetener
• a salt shaker lying on its side with salt spilled out
• my son’s papers from school
• my daughter’s spelling words
• my Bible and this week’s Sunday school lesson
• the grocery list
• my calendar
• my to do list
• the lap top
• and a glass of water.

These things are a picture of my slightly messy, always busy, beautiful life. Can you relate?

• The fruit in the bowl reminds me to work on displaying God’s fruit. Galatians 5:22-23 instructs us that the “fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Against such thing there is no law.”
• The empty orange juice container reminds me to pour myself out for others and be joyful doing it. In Philippians 2:17 we find that joy can be a part of spending ourselves for others.
• The artificial sweetener reminds me to be sincere, not just to pretend that I care. The greatest commandments are to love God with everything I am and to love others like I love myself. Mark 12:30-31.
• The spilled out salt is a great illustration for being salt and adding flavor to the lives that I come in contact with today. Reading Matthew 5:13 reminds us “You are the salt of the earth.” Colossians 4:6 encourages us, “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”
• The school papers and the spelling words remind me to be the kind of mom God wants me to be. Proverbs 31 is filled with advice for women about taking care of their families.
• My Bible and Sunday school lesson remind me to be in God’s Word and to mentor those younger than me. Psalm 119 and Titus 2 are filled with both commands and suggestions for ways to improve our lives.

• My calendar reminds me that God is the God of order and the “to do” list reminds me that sometimes His order is different from mine. Jeremiah 29:11 reminds us that God has a good plan for our lives.
• The lap top reminds me to do the work that God has called me to do. First Corinthians 12 reveals that God has given each believer a spiritual gift to be used.
• The glass of water reminds me that He is the living water that longs to replenish my soul and give me life. John 4:1-26 illustrates that Jesus longs to satisfy our deepest needs.

What’s lying around your house? How does it remind you of God? What does it challenge you to be?

Emily loves telling people about Jesus and teaching from God’s Word. She is the wife of Hayden and mom to Coleman (8), Grace (6), and Rachel (2 months). Emily is looking forward to spending the summer with the kids and traveling to the beach and Washington D.C.