Do It Again!

“The sun rises every morning. I do not rise every morning; but the variation is due not to my activity, but to my inaction. Now, to put the matter in a popular phrase, it might be true that the sun rises regularly because he never gets tired of rising. His routine might be due, not to a lifelessness, but to a rush of life. The thing I mean can be seen, for instance, in children, when they find some game or joke that they specially enjoy. A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, ‘Do it again’; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, ‘Do it again’ to the sun; and every evening, ‘Do it again’ to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.”

— G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

My toddler loves to play games. In fact, he loves to play the same game over and over and over and over.  "Again mommy! Again!", he cries. By the end of the day I'm tired of the games and worn out by all the repetition.  

In fact, lately I've just been in the survival mode. My day looks like this: I make myself get up, feed the baby, help get the toddler up, dress the toddler, feed the baby, put the baby down, listen to the baby cry or talk while not sleeping for his morning nap, play with the toddler, read to the toddler, feed everyone lunch, put everyone down for a nap, get everyone up for a nap, feed everyone a snack, play with people while trying to cook dinner, eat, put the baby down, workout while the husband puts down the toddler, drink coffee and watch a show or blog, and go to bed.

My day is the veritable epitome of monotony. So monotonous that by the end of the day I find myself wondering, "What's the point again? Was I a good mommy today? Did I really do anything that was awe inspiring or worthy of my calling as a child of God today?"

The other morning I got up and said to myself, " Agh. Here we go again!"

Then as I was feeding the baby, yet again, I started to browse the internet. I realized that it was groundhog day and started to think about the movie. The endless repetition of the same day over and over and over. Knowing that feeling I chuckled to myself and turned to facebook. Through a friend I found the quote above.

I began to feel humbled. After all, God gave me these children to care for and play games with. He made repetition. He does the same thing day after day and then loves me enough to listen to my complaints about not doing anything "worthy". Except that I'm doing exactly what he called me to do. Again, my child is teaching me the ultimate truths about God. Endless repetition is sweet to the soul. God just wants me to get up each day and "Do It Again mommy!"