Home | Charis Buckland

Hello friends! It’s another ordinary day here at our place! It’s “quiet time,” which means finishing up schoolwork for the older ones or napping for the littler ones. “Nap” could mean an actual quiet hour or might mean I’m putting people back in bed a few times. You know, Raegan gave me these “flowers” yesterday and said, “These are so beautiful.” I put them in a mason jar on the kitchen counter. She sees these ordinary “flowers” as beautiful. Maybe we should think of them as miraculous and beautiful too!

I’ve been taking each child to McDonald’s to get a special drink while I grab an iced coffee (extra big, please!). It’s only a few minutes together since McDonald’s is just down the street, and we sit for only a little while in the parking spot and watch the cars go by on Main Street. It’s still sweet time, though.

We celebrated two years of Izzy Grace and had quite an ordinary extraordinary day.

Bubbles were fun for all!

Each morning, we hit the old grind, and fix hair for school. They may only travel downstairs to the front room to get to their school desks, but we always do our best work when were dressed our best!

Ordinary days, ordinary people… We live in a culture that values being “seen.” We must be the best, dress the best, be the loudest in the room, wear the coolest clothes, or have the coolest kids, or work at the coolest place. It’s constant comparison. Simply observe the focus of television shows. So many tv shows are competitions! Kids cooking competitions to adult cooking competitions. Shows about who can survive in crazy locations and even shows about girls competing for one man’s attention. It can get. So. Tiring. 

You know, sometimes it feels like we go unseen. Like not many people see the hard work we do or the right and good choices we make. God sees it, though. Even when we don’t feel it. Holy work isn’t often praised by culture. Maybe it means we’re doing something right if the world doesn’t recognize what we’re doing! God’s work is often contrary to what the world values as important. 

Some of us are waiting for something. Some of us are tired of praying for what seems like too long and it seems like “it” will never happen. James 4:10 says, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you.” I love this and I know it to be true. 

When we quietly wait for the Lord AND with the Lord, He will take you where you are meant to go. When the day finally comes and you see what you have been waiting for, you can smile, and know that you and God understand together that He did that. You waited with Him, for Him, and celebrate how He worked it all out. Nobody even has to know, but it can also be a treasured moment to share about His faithfulness. 

God is working in these ordinary days and they are also a gift. You are not alone. He is right there with you. In the piles of laundry, the endless whining of kids, the old work grind, the trying to finish school, one slow class at a time, working fast food or working retail (I’ve done both), or praying for a husband, He is right there. He sees you. 

Some days are rainy Saturdays where nothing much happens, and people sit on the bed and watch old Mickey Mouse cartoons.

Some days we’re just in our “around the house clothes” doing not whole lot of what seems like anything.

I am a big fan of Laura Ingalls Wilder and she wrote, “As the years pass, I am coming more and more to understand that it is the common everyday blessings of our common everyday lives for which we should be particularly grateful.” I feel that. When I think of childhood, what I remember most are days filled with rolling around with the dog in the yard and even in the doghouse. I remember watching Andy Griffith at some point almost every day. Roller skating and playing “Olympics” in the garage! Reading my devotion every afternoon in middle school. Climbing our makeshift tree house in the back yard. Playing house with all my baby dolls. Babysitting when I was old enough. All these seemingly ordinary days were actually the best days and God was right there with me. 

Since then, I have grown up, and life has had its struggles, and continues to challenge my faith. The truth of God never changes and never becomes outdated, no matter how much culture shifts. He is still present and He still sees me and you. 

Wherever you are, keep doing holy work. Keep riding your scooter.

Keep blowing dandelions into the wind.

Keep plodding through school. Continue to make those week night meals for your family. Change those diapers, do that laundry.  God sees you. He knows you. He loves you.

Love,
Charis

Pic(k) of the week: 

Why, oh why are we missing the fourth kiddie spoon that I need for breakfast today? I wonder if someone threw it away thinking that would be helpful…