Sunday Snippet: Construction Site – Expect Delays…

Roadworks seem to be the fashion of the day and we are never very far from them. I have a child who loves and adores a good construction site and fortunately for her, there is often one within walking distance of home. Much as she loves construction sites I have a feeling that the amount of delay and traffic congestion surrounding the roadworks, and the fact that they are taking forever, may be leaving a lot of neighbourhood motorists more than a little put out.

It isn’t just roadworks, construction seems to be a way of life and it appears that often those around the construction find themselves a little put out – I didn’t even attempt to hang laundry this past week. Our laundry rack was going to be busy just for an afternoon of moving house… it turned out to be the whole week. I said nothing, I prefer to pick my battles.

However, when it comes to our hearts we expect the construction that is going on in there to happen overnight… and it won’t of course bother anyone around us. Needless to say as we sit in church on a Sunday morning and we all have on our Sunday smiles it might appear to the world that the roadworks going on in our hearts are all up to date and complete too. Smooth traffic flowing all round. I know there are moms sitting a couple of rows back thinking, wow she must be so organised and together, all her kids are in a row. Little do they know one child left home without shoes, another only had one shoe… three children flatly refused breakfast and claim they will never ever eat oats again and I don’t want to mention the dishes “soaking” in the sink. And as for the “he touched me, her knee was in my space, humming during prayers…” that goes on. I have to say that those in the row directly behind us are often very polite, and I am sure more than a little put out by the “roadworks” going on in our row. And that’s before we even get to the hearts.

Unfortunately, the roadworks in my heart are a bit more of a stop-and-go situation, sometimes I stop and take a breath, but mostly it is just go, go, go without pause. Two people asked me this week if I worked… um I have eight kids, I think I do. I have a feeling that they were actually asking if I earned a salary, I don’t. But what sprung to mind immediately, was the work I haven’t been getting around too… it is September and my plans to read the Bible through in a year… have drifted into a two year plan, and my intentions to learn a Bible verse each week are stuck way back in February. And the only good thing about that is that those were my plans and my works. And I am more than grateful that it is God who is working on my heart and constructing and transforming my mind, because if it were up to me… then we could expect quite a few delays. But since it is up to God, it will happen, despite my flimsy efforts, according to His perfect timing and eventually He will reach completion, even with me.