It's time for reinforcements.

Moses was worn out. He had been doing all the judging himself, and frankly, it was exhausting. His father in law came to visit and told him, "This is nuts, you shouldn't be doing this alone. Spread out the work!" Well Moses took that advice and delegated some of the work he had been doing. He felt better. 

God has been speaking to me about delegation lately. For some people who have had trouble not being control freaks (not to name any names) this can be a challenge. The old adage comes to mind, "If you want anything done right you have to do it yourself." Sometimes that feels true, but it's not. The truth is more like, "If you want to end up exhausted, worn out and limited in capacity to what you can accomplish, do everything yourself." 

Learning to empower others and give them the opportunity to challenge themselves, to succeed or fail, is a key characteristic of any good leader. As a leader in my home, I realize that loosening the reigns and giving my children more responsibility is not just helpful around the house but it is important for my children's development. 

Let me emphasize that it may not in fact be "helpful around the house" now, but as  people of vision, we can see that at some point it will be. Right now training the children in any job makes it take 3 times as long as it would for us to do on our own. Not to mention the fact that it has the potential for increased frustration levels (or grace opportunities depending on your perspective.) 

I was encouraged though, by a mom friend of mine. When I had my baby she came over with her older children and they cleaned my house for me. There were her kids vacuuming and cleaning the bathroom! Amazing!

The bible tells us to train up our children in the way they should go. I don't have a lot of clarity about the specifics of what this means, but I have few principles I am certain of. First I know we should train our children to know God, walk in his ways, receive his love and live for him. Second, they should know how to clean a toilet. I'm not sure which one of those is more challenging to impart to the next generation, but I aim to do both.

I just want to encourage you, as I encourage myself, don't grow weary in doing good. If it takes 5 months to train your son to unload the dishwasher (and that's just the silverware!) don't give up. Don't be discouraged if you have to put up with some sub-par work in the beginning. relax a little, remember this is training and it's worth it. It's worth it so one day they can actually wipe a table and it will be clean. It's worth it so they can feel like a valuable, contributing  member of the family. It's worth it so one day their wife will say, "I'm so glad your mom taught you how to clean a toilet."