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Character Blog

Orderliness

By August 16, 2023 No Comments

I see God’s order in the world

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1

One of my favorite (and well worn) tshirts from my younger mom days had “Chaos Coordinator” displayed across the front. I’m sure many of you can relate! Whether it’s life with young children or craziness at work, things can easily spin out of control leaving us feeling emotionally drained and overwhelmed. Chaos has a way of doing that, right?

And we all do the best that we can to try navigate or bring order out of the chaos. This summer I wanted to tackle our pantry.  Talk about chaos! With five of our six kids home for the summer, our pantry was in complete disarray. It was the epitome of chaos – it was overwhelming! And I admit – I had taken the path of least resistance for a long time by just keeping the door shut so I didn’t have to see it. The actual chaos overwhelmed me and the thought of cleaning it overwhelmed me. What a crazy cycle to be stuck in. Chaos, even in the midst of attempted control, is exhausting, isn’t it?

But what a breath of fresh air a little order can be! Thanks to a few organization purchases on Amazon, some time and energy– we were once again able to create a space of order. How rewarding the final product was! Doesn’t it feel good when we take the time to restore things that are out of order?

I find it remarkable that to some extent we all tend to crave order.  For some of us, it might be that a desire for order comes from a desire to control the situation or outcome. For others, having a routine and knowing what’s next is simply comforting. Our Creator is a God of order, do you think he instilled deep in us a longing for order? Look around and you will find order in every area of life.

Our language has order – not only in the way the alphabet flows, but the way in which we organize our words in sentence structure. Math has order – not only with number patterns but we learn quickly that the steps of a problem can’t be completed out of order because the answer will be wrong. Science has an order – there’s a systematic way of naming things in biology, and in chemistry, a way of finding out how many protons are in a nucleus by using the order of the periodic table. The list goes on and on!

CALL TO ACTION

We get a glimpse of this order in our own lives. We develop morning and bedtime routines, exercise  and shopping routines, our children grow developmentally in a certain order (sit, crawl, walk, take over the house, for example), and at work we have an order in which we conduct our daily tasks. Scripture encourages us to not only notice that order (Psalm 90 reminds us of the brevity of our life) but to find joy in it.

One last thought…in Latin, ordo armoris. Rightly ordered affections. It is true that two things cannot occupy the same space at the same time. And sometimes, as a result of this, our priorities, whether they are familial or spiritual, maybe work related or in friendships, get out of order. So what can we do to rightly order our affections?

Consider this week, what chaos (big or small) has you out of sorts and is keeping you from enjoying the joy of family, friends or work? What routine can use a little more order and intention so that it becomes a routine of delight rather than fight or fright? Is there something out of whack priority-wise that you need to readjust? Find joy in reclaiming orderliness in your life!

For your littles:

What are some of the ways that you can reinforce orderliness this week with your child(ren)?

  • Returning a room to order after playing – make cleaning up fun! Have a race – who can pick up the most the fastest?
  • Following instructions – Find an activity (like building a lego set) that involves steps of simple instructions. This teaches that order is necessary for a desired result.
  • Talk about the order of Creation – Read together the Creation story or as you’re outside point out different aspects of creation – Look at the moon! Who made the moon? God did! On what day did God create the moon? Day 4!
  • Share with children the order of their lives – show pictures and stories of when they were born, when they sat up, when they crawled, when they walked, celebrated their first birthday, etc – what’s the next milestone for them that you are looking forward to?
  • Create a routine – Whether it’s waking up, dropping off at Ardent, having nightly family dinner, create a routine your child will look forward to experiencing with you.

Tracy LaBreche