A Prayer for a Messy Home

Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof…

Christ, I’d be impressed if you made it past the driveway.

Cracks lined with weeds. Untrimmed hedges. A half-mowed lawn. Plastic children’s toys abandoned to bleach in the sun in that tacky way I swore I’d never let happen in my yard.

And if you did brave the front door, what would greet you in the entry as you wiped your feet on the mat?

Dirty shoes and piles of toys. Sports gear and backpacks strewn on the floor. Heaping laundry baskets (always so much laundry). Boxes for recycling and stacks of bills (always so many bills).

And me, standing sheepishly to the side, always apologizing for what’s undone.

…but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.

Help me to breathe into what’s most important – that we who live here are trying to care about things like the word and soul and healing.

Remind me that I’m called to keep up with Jesus, not the Joneses. That my work is to make a home, not a museum. A home that will always be more messy than magazine-worthy.

Help me to see people unfolding and not projects undone.

Help me to set aside my ego and endless to-do lists.

Help me to embrace hospitality anyway and humility always.

Help me to make room for you in my home and my heart.

Help my work to be full of word and soul and healing. Full of you.

You, Lord, whose home was always full of people interrupting your work
(even ripping off the roof to get inside),

who knew the challenges of family life (and the temptations of the world),

help me to seek and find you here: at home.

(With dirty dishes in the sink and dog hair on the couch and toys all over the floor.)

Help me to be at home with you. Amen.

Copyright 2012 Laura Kelly Fanucci at MotheringSpirit.com.