The Neely Team

A couple weeks ago, we had the opportunity to take a day-trip down to Dahlonega, GA, to get some much-needed bunk beds. After getting them home, set up, and then organized into a semi-workable position, we then faced our next household project. With four extra beds, we suddenly didn’t have enough bedding, and the odds-n-ends that we DID have just didn’t quite agree with the eyes of the beauty-conscious young ladies of the house. With the help of our favorite store and Mommy’s knack for sewing, we set about to collect and make sheets, pillowcases, pillows, comforters, curtains, etc. Then came the fun part – painting the rooms! First, we moved the couch from one of the rooms down one flight of stairs and up another for excellent muscle building . Next we pulled all of the furniture to the center of the room, (thus creating an almost ceiling-high junk pile!!), and spread out the necessary supplies. After deciding on a lively stem green for one room, and a softer, elegant gray for the other, we spent a couple days priming, painting, and then re-painting. Mommy (the patient veteran of the process), Amanda, and Jessica got an excellent system going, while the rest of us tried to keep the house running smoothly. When the paint was dry, Jessi and I got assigned to a delightful, tedious duty that we enjoyed tremendously! Soon, rings and dots were rapidly taking formation over the green walls, and, a little later, geometric squares were “thrown” like confetti all over the gray! This detailed painting experience helped me become more comfortable with home decoration and Jessi and I loved working together, creating beauty and having meaningful conversations. At last, the major part of the project was complete, and we enthusiastically set into (even though it was 9:00 p.m. ) organizing the furniture, making up the beds, and getting the rooms looking decent again! It’s a good thing no one rang our doorbell at that time – the upstairs hallway, which can be seen from the front door, was the convenient spot for DUMPING anything we didn’t need in our rooms! STUFF was piled SO high that one literally had to HOP over six piles to get from one room to the next, trying all the while not to break anything valuable, including arms, legs, and other appendages! (I know that sounds like an exaggeration, but, frighteningly, it’s NOT!!!!!) What a joy it was when, the next day, all of the junk was gone, either to the thrift store or simply put where it belonged!!!  The whole process was fun, educational, and exciting, and I was blessed by the joy and originality that was portrayed while we cleaned up the official, glorified pig-sty that we’d created!!  

One of the joys of living in a large family is all of the responsibility and diligence that must take place in order to function. Anyway, most of you could probably tell me right away what this picture is. Well, at our house, when anyone sees (or especially helps to create ) one of these, they always refer to it as the same thing – a “MOUNTAIN” of laundry!! For you to see why we have this “mountain”, let’s have a little math lesson. There are twelve people at our house. Every day, then, there are 12 shirts, 12 skirts/pants/shorts, 24 socks, usually at least 6 pr. of pajamas, and if we all decide to wash our towels the same day, well… I’ll let you figure that out! Okay, now multiply that by 3 because we hadn’t done laundry over the weekend, and throw in several kitchen towels, numerous wash clothes, 2 dishwashing sponges, 3 more outfits for Titus, 3 bibs, 6 burp clothes, 2 baby blankets, 5 more pr. of socks because some people had stepped in water, and any other miscellaneous items that people happened to find. There. You know about how much laundry we were doing. It just so happened that that day, Amanda, who is usually our laundry lady, was off duty (in other words, at work with Dad ). What a problem! Our personal laundry service was gone. So, I had the privilege of getting to fold these three king-sized loads, all by myself (boy, do I like working with other people!! ), while everyone else was busy about their own duties.  My first thought could be, “Great! I get to do all of this, by myself, and I even have to have it done in a certain amount of time! It’s not fair!! Why do I always get the hard jobs???” By God’s grace, however, I actually enjoyed it, got it done fairly quickly, received many “oohs” and  “aahs” from the passers by at the gargantuan stacks that were rapidly piling up , and along the way was reminded by the Lord of an important truth.

There are many times in life that it seems that there are huge mountains of things to accomplish. When we try to attack and demolish them on our own, we will quickly discover our weaknesses and find out that we, in and of ourselves, cannot do anything good. When we depend on the Lord, however, He triumphs over the situation and works through us in a way that surpasses anything we could have ever dreamed of! Jesus Christ alone must be our source of joy, strength, and power. So, even when the task seems impossible, life unfair, and the joy departed from your heart, step out in faith, trust God, and do the next thing.