Discipline and Desire

Bloggers everywhere are posting new found web pages that help organize family life: chores, meal plans, exercise and diet apps….

These sites tell you what to cook, give you grocery lists, tell you when to wipe out your sink, hang up new hand towels, when to replenish the toilet paper and more!

No brainer, right? Just open your wallet, pluck out that trusty credit card, pay for the system and next thing you know, your house is sparkly house beautiful clean, your bathrooms sanitized, towels washed, clothes are put away (not left in the laundry basket or dryer), table is set with festive dishes and the happy family sits down to dinner and participates in lively intelligent conversation. All you have to do is order, order, order, print, print, print, or app, app, app.? Right?

Wrong!! Don’t stone me yet, I am not against these organizational apps in the least, in fact, I use some of them! These apps give birth to the desire that is within us to be organized, functional, eat wholesome meals and have a low stress home. (Clutter breeds stress.) For those of us who just can’t find a starting point to put it all together, these geniuses have done it for us!

What happens after the birth? You have to take care of the baby, right? Simple? Right? Make a system. Work the system. Have a plan. Follow the plan. What does this take? Discipline. It is the key that unlocks any organizational plan. Period. You can plop down the money for all the apps, worksheets, planners, organizers in the world and none of them will work for you. You work for them. It can be a healthy relationship. It’s okay, don’t be afraid, it’s just words on a page. How tough can it be?

Change all hand towels. Check.
Wipe out the fridge. Check.
Feed the dog. Check.

The mental discipline is the challenge. I can do it, I can work the system. My desire and my discipline will line up.

I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me [I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who [g]infuses inner strength into me; I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency]. Phil. 4:13

The battle is fought in the mind, more specifically, the will. Weak willed people don’t accomplish much. Many times in my life my will was weak when it came to certain tasks such as putting the book down to cook dinner. One more chapter, I told myself. Half an hour later, hungry kids sought me out, “When are we eating dinner, can I have a yogurt?”

Aligning my will with my desire to have a clean organized home accomplishes the task.

Many eons ago, before INTERNET, web pages and apps for the I-pod/pad, I designed a system of organization with a PEN and PAPER, note cards, a ruler and assorted books. Most of my ideas were gleaned from reading BOOKS, not necessarily organization books. (Cheaper by
the Dozen is one)

My system:
A chore chart on the fridge (for kids and me) plus time during the day to do the chore
On this chart each child is assigned a room to be responsible for per day (in addition to their bedroom)
Note cards tacked up in each room to list cleaning tasks for that room, daily and weekly
Meal and snack plans posted on the fridge from the Menu/grocery list page I designed

My system requires industry to keep it running. The investment of time was well worth the outcome. The performance of daily tasks grew discipline in me and in my children. The desire became reality.

Is my home perfect all the time? No, there are days when we don’t toil for the system, but not many. We get back on track because as daughter Ania says, “I don’t care whose dish day it is, I am doing it cause I can’t stand it!” Her will parallels her desire.