Target Practice - Susan Lyttek

"But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed." Isaiah 53:5

Every other Tuesday morning, the boys tear the dirty sheets off their beds. “Mom! Get in position!”

I stand at the bottom of the stairs while they hurl, with youthful gusto, the ball of dirty laundry at me—hoping, at the very least, to knock the wind out of me. A powerful, mom-altering throw and they win. They have figured out how to put all their sheets into a pillowcase for better control. And on alternate laundry days, when I wash the blankets, too, they relish the extra weight it provides their delivery package. They laugh as I dramatically stumble backwards from their efforts and cry for mercy.

One bad week, the sheets desperately needed changing, but my head pounded from a migraine. Praying the throws would miss or at least hit lightly, I assumed the position. My eldest took one look at me and stopped himself in mid-throw. Instead, he brought his laundry downstairs. But when his younger brother insisted on having a target, he said, “Throw it at me. Mom can’t take it today.”

Years ago, on a dusty hillside, someone became the target when we couldn’t take it. He took all the dirty laundry aimed at him. We flung it at him without the slightest hint of giggles or affection. Instead, our missiles had hate, evil and envy at their root. The burdens we threw made him stagger and fall under their oppressive weight.

On that hillside long ago, we won—not because we knocked him down, but because he allowed us to. He let our filth knock him down so he could do the cleaning that we could not—the work that would make us new.

And tomorrow, when the laundry game is over and fresh, clean sheets cover their beds, we can snuggle together talking about the one who makes all things perfectly clean. So toss your dirt at the Christ who washes you clean.

Prayer: Father God, remind us that You sent Your son as the sacrificial Lamb that Passover foretold. He took the blows sin meant for us, so we could enter the eternally promised land.

Susan Lyttek writes early in the morning from the D.C. suburbs before the day calls her to homeschool her two boys, coach writing online, and attempt to minimize household chaos. She has sold everything from plays to interviews to short stories and greeting cards.
Read Susan's devotions.

Perfectly Made...to Bounce - Susan A. J. Lyttek

“There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.” Proverbs 14:12

I bounce.

That doesn’t mean, like A.A. Milne’s Tigger, that I hop to every destination. What it means is I find it impossible to stay on task. I have an incredibly short attention span.

So how does someone who can’t stay focused more than ten to twenty minutes complete a play, a book, or an article? I bounce. I work with my natural inclinations and let myself go from project to project as the urge hits. I might begin by grading papers from my students, move on to sorting laundry, to writing a chapter from one book, to working on the proposal for another book, to playing a game of computer solitaire, to helping boys with schoolwork—all in the course of one hour.

Obviously, exceptions occur. Deadlines force me to stay on task past my usual limit. But then, I play loud music and let my body bounce to release the nervous energy.

For years, whenever I took writing classes, I felt I was doing something wrong. Many writing teachers taught organization, planning, outlining and sequential follow-through. Every time I tried to obey the “right way” I succumbed to a straight jacket. I was living outside of the way God created me.

For me, working the “right way” stifled my creativity, shut off the flow of words, and made me die inside. That’s not the way God wanted me to know Him or to live, and it’s not how He created me.

A workshop leader, along the way, freed me by telling me that writers write. Not that they follow rules or plans or organizational charts, but that they write.

And if need be, they bounce.

Prayer: Lord, help us remember that You are the God of incredible creativity. Let us allow You to work within each of us as You planned and not the “right ways” of others.

Susan Lyttek writes early in the morning from the D.C. suburbs before the day calls her to home school her two boys, coach writing online, and attempt to minimize household chaos. She has sold everything from plays to interviews to short stories and greeting cards.