Hearts at Home and my religious ruts

This past weekend I went to a Hearts at Home conference. I look forward to these every year and know that I will come back with great ideas and insights. This year was the same as usual although I did come back tired which I guess is to be expected in pregnancy. I learned some great new things and also heard things I've heard before but for some reason I need to be reminded every so often. There are always amazing speakers but what is always so amazing is how the Lord speaks to me at conferences like this. Sometimes it is even small things, for example, I was sitting in a workshop and the speaker was talking about how she loved a clean house (as do I) but she didn't want to feel like she had to be cleaning all the time (as do I) so she set one day to get ALL of her cleaning done. A couple of years ago I prayed about how to keep things in balance and I felt led to start cleaning part of the house each day but this HAS NOT been working lately. When I heard this woman talking I felt the Lord saying to listen and do what she was saying. It was then I realized that my life is very different from what it was 4 years ago and God is changing my plan for keeping things in balance. Four years ago I had 1 child, living in a small apartment, without too many extra activities. I now have 2 children, 1 on the way, living in a house with a yard, homeschooling, in charge of a Moms Group and VBS along with some other ministry things. I see in this simple and maybe silly revelation I received how sometimes I can turn the smallest things into legalistic religious ruts. I want to be open to whatever the Lord says even when He changes things. This year we have decided to let our kids go Trick or treating around our culdesac and then come back and pass out candy along with tracts. I really don't like halloween and all the gore and just plain evil that it is associated with it but the Lord convicted me that I was missing out on a great opportunity. When else do you have kids you don't know coming to your door and asking for something. While we will be handing out candy I am also going to hand out something about a relationship with Jesus. I want to be ready for whatever God changes in my life.

I have also been focusing on just enjoying my kids and having fun. We always have great family times but last night was a blast. We decided to play charades. Josh found a program online that actually gave you the words. It was hilarious to see Liah play this game. Blake was awesome at it, much better than Josh and I. It was a fun time and I realized that things were perfect even though the house was (or should I say is) a mess. Sometimes I need to be reminded that this is just a season in life. There will be days down the road that I will have all the time in the world to clean my house because my children will be grown and gone. And though I'm excited to see what my kids turn out to be and see how God uses them I don't even want to think about them not being kids anymore.