I'm So Sorry Mr. AT&T Man!

Today was quite a day! I was in a meeting at my children's school at 8:00 this morning with freshly washed, straightened hair and make up on. Let's just say since I left my full time job outside the home that being fully dressed and somewhere by 8:00 a.m. is really not the norm for me anymore. Which incidentally, according to Fly Lady is my problem but that is another topic all together.

I get back home shortly after 8:30 and am ready to attack my ever growing laundry and mess in general. I look outside and what do my eyes behold but the AT&T truck and it is parked beside my driveway. I wanted to shout for joy because I have been with out a house phone for a week. Now call me old school, but I like my "land line". Yes, I have a cell phone but it does not have a lot of bars at my house so for a week I have really not been able to have good conversation with anyone. I have the gift of being able to talk to a tree, so my husband has been bombarded with more words this week than he probably preferred.

I was busy in my son's room when I hear a knock at the door. It is my friendly AT&T man just letting me know that he is here working on our problem. I get back to working when I hear another knock. Again it is my AT&T man, still friendly, but now he needs to come in the house to see what is really the problem.

I could drag this out because I have a lot of words built up inside of me, but I am just going to give you the short version. After about an hour, I am finally able to shut the front door behind the still friendly but I think partly stunned AT&T man. To find our problem I had to move every bed in the house and I have a king size bed. He was so kind to help me. But I was horrified. I was silently praying that he did not have asthma because if he did I was sure the dust was going to kill him!

It was bad, really, really bad!

And it only gets worse. He went through my hall closet, laundry room, kitchen, upstairs bonus room and both of my kids rooms. And not just my kids rooms, but I had to move their beds for him to get to the phone jack. An eight year old boy can hide all kinds of stuff under his bed!

Why, oh why is my house such a mess?

I know the poor man was worn out when he left my house because of the obstacle course of junk I had created for him. I was worn out because the moment he stepped out to get a tool from his truck I was picking up and hiding things like a crazy woman. I know he had to wonder why I looked to sweaty!

Oh, and I can not forget to add that my Christmas tree is still in my living room. It is disassembled and laying in the floor. This year we bought a 9 ft prelit Christmas tree. Lowe's put their trees on sale for 50% off at the beginning of December so my husband drove over an hour to find a store that had one left. The only problem is that it was the display so they did not have the box but they discounted it 60% so we did not really care. Only now I am really caring because they do not make a storage container long enough to hold even one piece of it. Hence why it is still laying in my living room floor.

As I looked around my house and pondered the situation, I began to think of the Proverbs 31 Woman. I feel certain that her house was not cluttered and her closets were not overflowing. The description of the Proverbs 31 Woman that gets me everytime is in verse 27 "She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness."

I'm going to be honest with you and tell you that I've not only eaten the bread of idleness, but I have gotten fat off of the bread of idleness. And do you know what that leaves me with? Excess baggage in the form of feeling useless. And do you know who delights in making me feel useless? Yes, you guessed it my enemy.

I know that God did not put the Proverbs 31 Woman in the Bible to make me feel useless and worthless. No, He put her there to give me and you something to strive for.

So, if you are up to it I thought I would spend some time over the next few weeks blogging about things I have learned about this woman. Dig in to Proverbs 31 with me and lets find the treasure that God has waiting for us!