Offering It Up

Okay, so the whole “the big things ARE the little things” was cute.  Then I went into day four of phenomenal overnight diaper fail.  I will spare you the details, but suffice it to say I needed scissors on two occasions to prevent an E.Coli infection of the five year old’s eye.

And today, day four, the washing machine broke.  Really?  Really.

On extra gross poop days, I bless the inventors of the washing machine.  It’s a controversial topic, as told on Wikipedia, as to who the sole inventor of the modern machine is… but I am grateful to all the people who worked to develop it to its current form.  I would be spending pretty much every day at the creek and would never get the butter churned or the clothes mended or floor swept or the meat smoked if I did not have a washing machine.

So today, when I heard it stop in the middle of the cycle, and smelled a burnt rubber odor like that of a broken vacuum belt, I was dejected.

I have a hard time remembering to offer up my little daily inconveniences much less major sufferings.  But I always feel better when I do.

And I know God is outside of time, so if I remember to offer it up later, it still counts some.

But one would think that the internal angry dialogue during the clean up or at the stink of burnt rubber would take away a little from the leftover offer later.

I’m not sure I ever really understood the phrase, “Offer it up.”  I’d hear people say it when I was a child and it meant little to me.  I WANTED to offer “it” up, but wasn’t really sure how.  Once in a while, my mom would say, “Offer it up for the souls in purgatory.”  This made some more sense, but required a deeper theological understanding of which I was probably incapable at the time.  It did instill in me a remembrance for the Holy Souls that I still carry, and for which I am grateful.  But “offer it up” was still a bit of an enigma.

Even as an adult, it’s an uncertain exercise for me.  What I often end up doing is thinking of someone in my life who is struggling or has recently requested prayers and say a prayer that I am offering up whatever thing is going on at the moment (or in the recent past).  I am not certain this is right, but it can’t be too wrong.

And when I tell my kids to offer up some small or large suffering, they will think of an intention or someone for whom we’ve recently been praying and let me know.  It warms this mother’s heart when they think to do that.  And I have a feeling their heartfelt offer, even in the midst of splinter removal or eye drops, fills Heaven with a special kind of joy only the innocence of child’s prayer can unfurl.

I’d LOVE to hear how others interpret offering it up.  Please comment!