101 Days of Order Challenge

                         Work hard and cheerfully at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than people.  Remember that the Lord will give you and inheritance as your reward, and the Master you are serving is Christ.
                                              Colossians 3: 23-24


What it is:
Living order, deliberately and honestly for 101 days, and keeping track of your progress in a journal

I have a friend that started this challenge about a month ago.  When I say started this challenge, I mean she invented it and began it herself.  She wanted to challenge herself to eliminate as much disorder in her home as possible. 
                 If you are ready to live order in your entire life, do this challenge with me. After struggling for 3 years to find peace and fulfillment in my days at home with my children, I decided to challenge myself to living order in my home for 101 days. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my life! I love my family! I love being a mom... but I have not been loving my job. I mean, cleaning up poop, washing dishes, doing laundry, and cooking is great and all, but I was tired of feeling worn out every night while at the same time feeling like I had accomplished nothing. I was tired of being frustrated that my children wanted to eat EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. I was tired of feeling like a failure as a mother and homemaker.
                 The catch is to pray like it all depends on God and work like it all depends on you. The challenge requires prayer, hard work, and complete honesty with yourself and openness with God. We won't come out of these 101 days perfect, but hopefully we will be facing in the right direction.

Jesus said to "be perfect as my Heavenly Father is perfect." This does not mean being a perfectionist, but to do all things well so that your efforts can be united to the work of God.
http://motheringsunshine.blogspot.com/p/101-days-of-order.html

I feel like God has been speaking to me though my friend Jenny.  She doesn't even realize that the last two group meeting with my mom's group she has spoken on topics that I am struggling with:  #1-Prayer/strengthening my relationship with God and #2- feeling fulfilled with my job at home.  After the talk she gave several weeks ago about prayer, I decided to start a Bible reading plan.  I am reading one plan to read though the Bible in a year and another as a prayer devotional for parenting. I received a Kindle Fire for my birthday.  I downloaded a really neat app with both of these plans, as well as a daily word from Jesus.  The Kindle reminds me everyday when I turn it on that I have scripture to read.  If I am down, sometimes I read my verses from Jesus right then. Otherwise, I have been waiting until the end of the day and reading both plans out loud to my husband when we lay down at night.  This has fulfilled my empty feeling for wanting to read God's word, but I still felt this struggle at home.  Especially when I am in this house for 12 hours with two kids and hardly any adult conversation.  I feel like my friend, Jenny was reading my mind when she shared this idea with our mom's group last Friday.  It was like she has been peeping in my windows and knew what my life was like inside my home.  I felt this overwhelming obligation to get this disorder in my home into gear.  She suggested getting a buddy to do this with me...all my buddies are in this mom's group and I figure they are thinking of doing this too.  I will have more than enough support to help me though these crazy days.  I will keep this journal honest and do my best to not sound like I am crazy.

Here are the rules:

1     1) Pray every day. This is the first step toward order. Order your relationship with God first. We are doing this for Him.

2     2) Live a schedule EVERY DAY. I am going to write a “normal day” schedule, a weekend schedule, and an eff this schedule (for those days that are going to be a feat just to get through, days we have company in town, and days that are just too beautiful to be anywhere but outside, etc.). I am going to have to tweak these as I learn. Yours will be different than mine. WRITE THEM OUT!

3     3) Check all excuses at the door! I don’t care if you were in the ER all night with a sick baby!! Refer to rule number 2! We are going to live order every day, not because we are perfectionists or OCD but because order brings peace (Ever notice that God is orderly? Look around you! There is an order to everything he created!!!!).

4     4) Get back on the horse and off your ass. When, not if, you skip one of the afore mentioned rules, refer to rule # 3 and then back to this one. Get moving.

5     5) Go to bed with a clean kitchen. If you ignore this rule it will make following rule #2 very difficult!! Not only will you be combating evil tiny black ants, but you will be kicking yourself all day and everything will be off kilter and you will find yourself breaking rule #3 and having to engage rule #4 and you will be as exhausted as this sentence is long! In case you were wondering how clean is clean, this is my definition for beginners like ourselves: dishes washed, sink clean, all food put away, counters washed, and floors swept. By the end of these 101 days our fridges will be cleaned, the floors washed, everything neat and tidy, they will be Martha Stuart clean, Mary Poppins clean, you get the picture, but for now we are talking “let’s not get salmonella” kind of clean.

6     6) Remember WHY you are doing this: For God, for FAMILY, for Peace. If you find yourself loosing hope, frustrated, resentful, or rebellious refer to rules 1 and 4

7

7     7) Do everything to your absolute best ability

      Wish me luck and pray for me throughout this 101 Day of Order Challenge.  I can do all things through Christ who strengthen me!

Now, on to Day 1...
Challenge for the rest of this day, since it is 3:51.  I plan to totally copy Jenny's first suggestion.  Go to bed with a clean kitchen.  I also plan to stop this post and really pray and ask God to keep me to this challenge and allow it to really strengthen me as a Godly daughter, wife, mother, housekeeper, nurse, cook, laundry mat, poop cleaner-uper and all around person.