"daddy's chores"

The kids usually look forward to a family movie and home-made pizza on Saturday evenings, but halfway through dinner, their daddy got a call that changed our plans.  One of Stefan's Mozambican friends was going through a family crisis and needed someone to talk to--so in less than a minute he was gone. 

And there I sat with four children sitting around the table staring at me--their expectations dashed--not to mention my own...and a mountain of dishes in the kitchen.  So I put it to the children--their daddy was called away on an important task to help someone who needed help--what could we do to make that happen?  The kids thought about it for a moment then suggested that maybe they could do "Daddy's chores" so that he could go help his friend and wouldn't have to do them when he got home later this evening.  So glad they thought of that themselves (wink).

And so we began our evening of service.  Cohen (6) volunteered to wash the dishes and Christian (5) offered to dry.  Wesley (3) was given the task of playing with and caring for Alex (1 1/2).  We turned on some music and set to work.  Admittedly, the dish towel is a bit greasy this evening after cleaning off some food our volunteer dish washer missed.  And admittedly the volunteer dish drier got distracted when Steve Fee's "Glory To God" song played over the ipod and he dashed off to lead his two younger sisters in a jamming session in the living room.  And truthfully, Wesley has a very limited ability to corall and entertain her younger sister without simultaneously making her scream.  Between dishes and sweeping and drumming, it was soon bedime. 

I of course appreciated their help and cooperation, but mostly what brought so much joy to the evening was seeing that they seemed to grasp that they were doing it SO THAT their Dad could do his work.  It was not just a "salvaged" evening together--it became a purposeful and meaningful evening--right on down to little Alex clapping her hands and dancing to the music.

It also struck me that this kind of evening was possible because of who Stefan is.  I'm not talking about him being the kind of guy who will drop his home-made pizza on a Saturday night to go help a friend--although he is that.  The truth is, many fathers miss their dinners because of work.  Many fathers miss family movie night to go hang out with friends.  Many fathers miss tucking their kids in to bed because their "ministry" has called them away.  But my kids' father doesn't.  He makes it a habit to be home to share dinner with us.  He works hard and we juggle schedules so that Saturdays are spent together as a family.  He washes Saturday evening dishes (usually).  As a family we are "full."  And because we are full, when an emergency comes up, we can swallow our temporary dissappointment, wave good bye, and "do his chores."  We know that tomorrow we will have supper together and that chances are, next Saturday we will all watch a movie together. 

 And of course he'll do next Saturday evening's dishes...right honey?