Saturday morning…. For some of you, the mention of Saturday
morning might bring up images of turning off your alarm the night before and
sleeping in as late as you want. You might imagine following this up with a
lackadaisical run to a coffee shop, or a stop at the grocery store to pick up
some snacks to enjoy later that day while watching the college football game on
TV.
Let me invite you into my Saturday morning. My alarm goes
off at 6:45am, which in itself is a treat because most days my alarm is set an
hour earlier. I get dressed and ready for the day, throw up my hair so it is
out of my face, and switch some laundry my husband threw into the wash the
night before into the dryer. Next I send a quick good morning text to my
husband, because he left an hour ago to work the Saturday morning shift at work
for the third week in a row.
As soon as I go upstairs to my kitchen(the basement is my
bedroom), I turn on the Christian radio station app on my phone, and start
pulling multiple ingredients out of the fridge. The next hour is a calculated
hurry of making a ham and corn chowder and a batch of banana bread at the same
time. As I pull the finished chowder off the heat, and prepare to put the bread
in the oven, I hear my young boys’ voices upstairs. This causes me to quickly
throw the bread in the oven, set a timer, toss the last ingredients on the
counter back into the fridge or cupboards, and head upstairs to get my sons out
of bed.
What follows is the typical morning routine of changing
Little One’s diaper and clothes while MiniMe struggles to wake up, go to the
potty, and needs gentle reminders that he has to put his underwear and shorts
back on rather than running around the house naked below the waist. Then they
were sat down at the table to eat the last of the previous week’s sweet bread, an
apple, and some milk while I started making a type of sausage, potato tart
which we like to call Impossible Pie.
As I worked around the kitchen, completely forgetting that I
was going to start a pot of coffee, drink a glass of water, and also have some
sweet bread, my two young boys periodically required me to pause in whatever
baking/cooking step I was working on in order to attend to their needs,
requests, or desires.
After breakfast, I set the boys up with a half hour video
about fish, and handed them some books we’d picked up from the library a week
before when MiniMe had asked if we could learn about fish. As they watched, I
finished off the Impossible Pie, put it in the oven, and started my “lazy
muffins”(meaning they were a mix rather than homemade). When I had finished the
batter, I called my boys in and they helped put the cupcake liners into the
muffin tins. After all the batter was prepared in the tins, we still had to
wait a little while for the Impossible Pie to be done as it baked at a much
higher temperature than the muffins.
While we waited, MiniMe helped me do the dishes. He handed
me dishes from the dishwasher, and I put them away. Then he pulled a stool up
to the counter, pulled out the silverware holder from the dishwasher, and began
unloading the silverware into their separate containers in the drawer. I
listened to him reprimand a stray spoon or fork that fell on the floor more
than once as I washed the pots, pans, and other dishes that weren’t dishwasher
safe. Then MiniMe went back to the dishwasher, and I handed him dirty dishes as
I rinsed them so he could put them into the now empty dishwasher, giving occasional instruction and
encouragement as needed.
After this we were able to put the muffins in the oven, and
while they baked, both of the boys helped me tidy the living room. MiniMe
picked up the stairway by standing at the top and giggling as I tossed him
things and told him where they belonged upstairs. Meanwhile I was handing
pieces of trash to Little One who toddled into the kitchen and threw them away
one at a time, clapping for himself every time. They were rewarded for their
help by a sippy cup each filled with watered down Root Beer(my boys love
ANYTHING sweet added to their water).
Next the boys sat on the couch and giggled as I vacuumed and
they considered themselves safe from the loud machine. At this time it was
10:30 am. Many people I have talked to are regularly still asleep at this time
on a Saturday morning.
Then there is my husband. As previously mentioned, my
husband had been gone an hour by the time I was getting out of bed a little
before 7 am. He would normally only work every 6th Saturday, but
this was the third Saturday in a row he had taken for a coworker in order to
help us take one step closer to getting out of debt. And it wasn’t the first
time that week he had missed out on sleep. His schedule over the week had been
as follows:
Sunday night 7:30 pm-Head into work
Monday 7am-Get off work a little early to drive to class 25
miles away. 10am-Get out of class and head home. 11am-4pm sleep(couldn’t fall
back to sleep after 4pm). 7:30pm-
Head back to work.
Tuesday 8 am-Come home from work, shower, quick breakfast.
10:30am-12pm-Take a class for work. 12pm-7pm sleep. 7:30pm-Head back to work.
Wednesday 7am-Leave work early to drive to class 25 miles
away, 10am-Get out of class, drive home, shower, eat, doze in a chair for few
minutes. 12pm-2:30pm Take another class for work. Go home, get another 15
minutes of sleep. 4pm-Get ready for class, drive to class 25 miles away. 10:30
pm-Get to work.
Thursday 8am-Now been awake for about 40 hours, come home
and watch children so wife can go to work. 1pm-4pm Nap while the boys are
napping. 7:30 pm-wife gets home from work, spend time with her. 9pm-Go to sleep.
Friday 9am-Get up so wife can go to work. 5:30 pm-Wife gets
home, go and donate plasma, come home and spend time with wife. 9pm-Go to
sleep.
By this point, other than wondering along with me how my
husband survived that week, you are probably wondering why I am telling you all
of this. The reason is because I wish and desire for a switch in mindset. You
see, you don’t know people’s scenario. You don’t know why your coworker is
coming in and is slow at their work. My husband and I are very busy, but I know
people who have it even rougher. I know a single mom who is working every
single day of the week, and when she gets home, is pouring all of her energy
into her son. She is saving every penny she can to buy a new car so she can
continue to get to and from her work and her child’s daycare.
See, after a week like I just laid out that my husband and I
had, we go to church on Sunday morning. After the service we go to Sunday
School and people share their prayer requests. And this is what a couple people
asked for: “We have a couple new young
people at my job. They are part of the Millenial generation, so of course they
are lazy and I could just use prayer that we could whip them into shape.”
My husband bit his tongue so hard that it probably bled, and
it took all of our will power to not just walk out of the room. I am 24 years
old. My husband is 25. We are right in the middle of the age group that these
people were talking about and labeled unilaterally as lazy. That single mom is
of the same age group.
There is a stereotype out there. I expect that from culture.
I know people my age who are lazy. I know that there is nothing wrong with
watching football on a Saturday morning or afternoon if you are able to take
that time to relax. But why are we hearing this labeling in the church? The
church is supposed to be made up of believers who help and care for and
encourage each other. Why would someone want to work very hard all week long to
provide for their family and then go to church and be told that they are
incompetent and lazy human beings? Is that what we are telling people who come
to church? Is that going to make them want to come back?
For those of you who are out there and had a week like my
husband’s, keep it up. For those of you in the workplace, if you see a coworker
dragging, come alongside them and ask how you can help. What you see as
incompetence may just be a person running on no sleep because they are so busy
providing. Or they just need someone to kindly train them so they can succeed
at their job. And if you call yourself a Christian, please take the time to get
to know those around you before you label them simply because they are in a
certain age group. Yes, some young people are lazy. Yes, some old people are
stuck in their ways. Or vice versa! But that shouldn’t matter to someone
walking in the Lord.
My challenge to you is next time someone of a different generation, background, etc does something that frustrates you to stay calm and remember that we are told "To speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people."(Tit 3:2)
Did you have a rough or long or crazy week? Let me know in
the comments, so I can encourage and pray for you. I need some practice at that myself. J
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