Domestic Engineering: Productivity During the Early Years

Some days I get angry when I am unable to complete what I set out to do.

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Other days I recognize my limitations and am able to accept them as a good gift from the Lord.

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Every day God is using my circumstances, strengths, and weaknesses to make me more like him.

Checklists: some people hate them, some people love them. I definitely fall into the latter group of people. To this day, I will write tasks I've already completed on any given day simply to be able to check them off. I love feeling productive.

Then the Lord blessed us with children. Having three kids in less than four years has redefined productivity for me. About every three months, our family dynamics change. Immobile, sitting up, crawling, walking, talking. The rate at which children grow and change in the first few years is mind-boggling.

Our baby turned a year this past April. As I look back on the last few years, I've decided I have four stages of productivity in this season of young kids. It looks something like this:

PREGNANCY

• Brain Status: Processing all information at quarter speed. 
• Physical Status: Feeling like I've been trying to run a marathon even though I've simply gone from the bedroom to the kitchen. 
• Goals: Keep the family clothed and fed, take a prenatal vitamin, drink lots of water, and try to keep the bathroom clean. 
• Concern about Productivity: None.
• Reality of Life: Surviving. 

Hoping in God (When Trials Seem Pointless)

Some days I get discouraged and overwhelmed at how hard life is.

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Other days I am comforted that God uses difficult circumstances to make me holy. 

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Every day God is sovereign and ordaining each step I take.

Have you ever cried out, “What’s the point?” or “Why is this happening to me?” during a season of suffering? In the midst of trials, it can be difficult to appreciate that there might be a benevolent purpose to the pain.

My natural inclination is to view trials as being pointless. It's easy for me to get caught up in trying to figure out how I can change my situation to maximize my own comfort and ease.

Now, please hear me on this. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with desiring to ease suffering. But, I do believe that I miss opportunities for growth in godliness if I am only focused on my circumstances.

While suffering is a consequence of sin, Scripture is emphatic that it is not meaningless. Here are four purposes the Bible talks about that I need to be reminded of in the midst of hardships.

1. Affliction is to help me know God's Word.

"This is my comfort in my affliction,
that your promise gives me life...
Before I was afflicted I went astray,
but now I keep your word...
It is good for me that I was afflicted,
that I might learn your statutes."
Psalm 119:50, 67, 71

Look at how David views and sees God at work. He sees his affliction as good! Trials lead him to know God's Word intimately and to live in obedience to it. God's promises in turn comfort him and give him life! It is in the Lord's presence that there is fullness of joy - not in the presence of ease and prosperity.