Thursday, February 28, 2008

"thanks be to God!" Malachai told me today as we walked to school "the rug in the living room was clean when I woke up this morning!"
um. I guess I should do a better job vacuuming on a regular basis.

On that note, this past week as I was cleaning my living room and noticing the scratches on my wood floor, the chocolate smeared on the arm of my white (yes, purchased before kids . . . but it had a zipper up the back and I thought that I would be able to actually take off the cover to wash it.) armchair, and the black crayon mark that mysteriously appeared on the wall behind the couch one Sunday afternoon . . I was reminded how GOOD it is to be surrounded by these traces of life - - of my Malachai and Josu, and of all those who have come into our home and eaten and played and lived with us; and as I think about it in this way, these marks actually become endearing! (um, not so endearing, though, that I'm not going to give that spit-up encrusted onto my couch a good scrubbing)

Where no oxen are, the manger is clean,
but much revenue comes by the strength of the ox
Proverbs 14:4

5 comments:

Lissa Van Gorkom said...

Wow Naomi...that is really a great way to look at life! I am going to work on thinking about appreciating the traces of life rather than stressing out over them! Thanks for the post. I love keeping up with you guys in your blog!

Naomi Smith said...

hi Lissa!
good to see your lovely blogging face!

Amy Medina said...

Thanks for the great perspective Naomi...since I often fret about the marks left on my walls by youth group kids...the scratches on my beautiful table....so I needed your insightful reminder!

Cat said...

Why do I never see THAT verse cross stitched on a throw pillow?

Naomi Smith said...

maybe you could cross stitch one for me?