The Handle

I was on our veranda for a few moments the other day
and heading back into the house I saw it.
 A smile broke out on my face
and my heart smiled too.
Fifty-four years old and I ‘get to’.  
The sweet joy of my muddy door handle.
Silly as it might seem, I really, truly 
love that muddy door handle
{and no, I haven’t washed it yet}.
My muddy door handle means
that I have little ones building mud balls, mud pies 
and mud castles in our yard.
And the reality is that
if my precious Lord hadn’t lifted me out 
of my own muddy mess and blessed me 
with this extraordinarily beautiful life 

my heart would be so lonely…
and I would be longing for
bulging laundry baskets,
stacked dishes waiting their turn in the dishwasher,
tiny bits of cut-up paper all {and I mean all} over the floor,
and the noise – oh the noise….
But instead Almighty God has granted me the enormous 
privilege of little treasures in the yard
mixing mud concoctions
each dreaming of building giant structures

working tirelessly together

laughing with each other
{and completely oblivious to my picture taking}
all in the shade of a gorgeous lime tree.

This silver-haired mama
cannot 
ever 
thank 
Him 
enough 
for 
my 
muddy door handle.
How ’bout you – 
what sweet mess are 
you thanking Him for today?

16 thoughts on “The Handle

  1. Oh Linny, I get such anxiety over messes… LOL I still can't think of that post you wrote so long ago about the chocolate syrup that spilled all over the dining room chairs and floor …. ANXIETY!!! But as i sit here, there are toys on the floor and clothes that have exploded from somewhere, mixed with backpacks and shoes and little socks. And Emmie is jumping around Andrew just like a monkey. I am not so excited about the mess , but the noise is a blessing. God willing my nest will never be empty.

  2. You are so funny Steph. You actually crossed my mind as I wrote this…wondering if you were lovin' messes more *now*? I pray your nest is never, ever empty…just like mine…life's too short to not live on the wild, crazy busy side! xoxox

  3. Thanking Him for a soaking wet kitchen floor and counters and dishes that all need to be re-washed 'cuz you know that clean dishes just have to be licked before being put in the drying rack, right?! Seriously, so thankful for my little man, home just barely a month, who loves nothing more than to help his mama!!!

    p.s. Linny, this little treasure of mine is the miracle following my social worker saying, "there's no point in continuing with your homestudy… we're not going to be approving you". Thank you for praying – He is indeed a mountain moving God!!!

    1. Oh Andrea – I am soooo happy he is home. And that SW? Just an obstacle to discourage…God moves and comes through and He gets all the glory! I am so thankful for your wet kitchen floor/counters/dishes…Yippee Jesus!

  4. I had a dream about your sweet family last night! You were announcing your adoption of a young child (between the age of 3-6). I couldn't see if it was a boy or girl but you were all so overjoyed.

    I am thanking him for the chaotic organised mess that is nuring. What a career!

  5. At our house it is the poptart sticky bathroom doorknob or the slobbery goodbye kisses I get everyday as I drop off kiddos at school. I cannot imagine a better way to be living than to be surrounded by children. So many people ask me or my husband why we still do this (I'm 49, he is 52) and I think they don't even begin to know what they are missing! We are parenting kids with severe trauma, so there are moments that are harder than hard, but the joy we feel in showing them what parental love is supposed to be and just the joy of life whether it is mud balls or in our case finding round rocks out on a certain stretch of farm road. Life is never dull and so much more appreciated when shared with a child.

  6. Oh how I love this. I never want an empty nest. So pray for me. Funny tonight when I got done teaching a spin class a lady asked me how old my kids are and when I told her, they are 9 and under, she said oh they will be gone soon as if I was in a hurry for them to grow up….what?!!!! That is so far from the truth in my life. I want to squeeze every little second out of these precious years and I wish sometimes it would slow down. I noticed when I am enjoying my kids and I get comments like that when they hear my response it seems to make people uncomfortable. You are such an inspiration to me Linny and I feel so understood here at your place. Please pray for my nest to never be empty…….even though I am a single parent.

  7. I love a bathtub filled with toys and I have to get them all out in order to take a bath. I also love that I have terrible toe nails. When I look down it reminds me that I have more important things to do as a mommy than get my toes done. I know when they are grown and gone and I look down and see perfect toes that I will be sad b/c I had the time and money to get them done. I'm so weird.

  8. After only a month of being a foster mom to two sweet littles, I have to say the mess in my kitchen was starting to get to me this morning. (There's so much more stuff now that we have kids! And our tiny storage space didn't grow at all!) What a perfectly timed post. Because the open mouthed kisses from the little guy and the bedtime snuggles with the girlie are completely worth it.

  9. Uncharacteristically I'm excited about medical bills coming up for my 17 year old's tonsillectomy & sinus surgery. We don't have the money of course, but it needs to be done. The doctor actually added a procedure to the mix yesterday… since he'll be in there anyway… and you know what? My first thought *wasn't* ugh… more $! It's going to be a messy & painful few days in November and I will get to mother him one more time… this fiercely independent, can't-wait-to-be-18-&-get-out-of-here kid. And I already know he's grateful that he does have a mom who wants to provide every possible need he has. AND I get to spend more time with his sweet girlfriend… so prayers will be coveted the week of Nov 12 for her as I look for an opening to share my faith with her. Thanks all !!

  10. I am thankful to God for giving me the wisdom and words to say yesterday as I had to tell my three foster kids that their dad no longer wants to be in their life. 🙁 Heart breaking, life changing, sad. But God is amazing, constant, and will love them forever….SO thankful for that!!

  11. Love this post, Linny. (Actually, I love all your posts, but this one I love love! :D). In our play room, I have a stained throw rug at the back door. It had cream, olive, and coffee colored stripes when we bought it, but now it has several blotches of bright red sno cone syrup. I could probably toss it in the laundry or send it to the cleaners, but I don't want to, because I remember the day, just over a year ago, when those blotches got on the rug. I had just come back from the zoo with my two boys, we walked in the door, and I handed them what remained of their sno cones, telling them to walk in the kitchen and finish them up. It is two steps from the back door to the kitchen. In the time it took for me to set down my sunglasses and keys, one of the sno cones had been sprayed in a big mess on the wall, the floor, and the throw rug. It still amazes me how quickly messes can be created. My mouth just dropped open — red was everywhere. I grabbed a wash cloth and went to work on the wall, then the carpet, when the phone rang. It was our case worker. It was THE CALL! I had waited for over three years for this moment, but when it happened, I totally didn't realize it was the call. Our case worker, who never ever ever called us by the way, (we always communicated by email) asks the normal how ya doin' kind of questions, and I'm grumbling to her about this red sno cone on the wall, on the carpet, on the throw rug, such a mess, oh well, what are you going to do, laughing a little, etc, etc. Then she says, ok are you sitting down? And I totally realize what was up! It was THE CALL for our sweet little two year old, who now routinely makes messes as two year olds will do. So now every time I look I see one of those red blotches on the throw rug, I just chuckle at how God was able to surprise me with the referral call that I had been waiting for three years to receive.

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