At Sixes and Sevens

I recently read the English phrase “At sixes and sevens” in a book written by a British author.  It’s used to describe ‘a condition of confusion or disarray.’   What we Americans like to call a “hot mess.”

No matter what you call it in your corner of the world, you know it when it happens. Mine seems to happen around holidays without fail.

Easter for my family is already streamlined. No baskets with chocolate bunnies, no egg hunts. To be honest, there are many Easter Sundays I have skipped church as that is when church attendance swells, and it overwhelms my introvert nature to the point of anxiety.

The younger children and I usually bake ‘Resurrection rolls’ while I tell them the story of Jesus’s death and resurrection. We end the day with a spiral ham and mashed potato dinner. My husband likes that the best.

I live with chronic anemia, and Good Friday was the day it hit me hard. Thankfully my husband has three-day weekends off from work, and this weekend was one of them. The entire weekend I spent drinking fluids, resting, and watching the house and kids fall into ‘sixes and sevens.’   Sunday morning arrived and I woke up thinking I hadn’t grocery shopped for anything Easter related. I didn’t have the strength to care.

My husband entered the bedroom with a full glass of lemonade for me. Citrus helps with iron absorption and when I am anemic, lemonade is all I want. However, when I fell asleep on Saturday night, there wasn’t any lemonade in the house. My hero went shopping during a pandemic to make sure I had lemonade and the ingredients for Resurrection rolls. He then told me he bought deli meat for sandwiches instead of spiral ham, so no one would feel the need to cook.

When I went downstairs, I discovered he had bought me a bouquet of cheery spring flowers and a card that said I was ‘lovely’ on it.  I felt like I had been anything but lovely all weekend. My husband kindly chose to see past the anemia and treat me as if I wasn’t looking and acting like a George Romero zombie.

Easter passed in a blur of rest. My husband took our oldest daughter to an unavoidable emergency medical visit and paid for her antibiotic.

Monday is here and I still don’t feel top-notch. I am a homeschooling mom even when there isn’t a pandemic. I decided that reading aloud in the dining room would be easy and not take too much out of me.

Then I heard the words that confirmed I am in a Sixes and Sevens/ Hot Mess sort of place right now.

From the kitchen, my nine-year-old son said to OUR CAT, “Did the dog just pee on you? Oh, you poor thing.”

As fast as an anemic mom can ‘jump into action,’ I told one daughter to check the kitchen floor for pee puddles, one son to bundle up the cat in a towel so I could wash him in the tub. As I listened to the decidedly mournful yowls of a very indignant cat, I laughed.

Jesus said in the book of Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

I am so thankful I serve a Savior who told me to come to Him and he would give me rest, not a to-do list riddled with guilt.  As a mom, I hear that scripture as “Come to me my weary daughter who is having a Sixes and Sevens/ Hot Mess/ the dog just peed on your cat kind of day and I will give you rest.”

Everyone’s Sixes and Sevens will look different to them, but the answer is always the same. Go to Jesus. He loves you. He wants to give you rest for your soul. 

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