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| Got a Crate? |
Have you ever gone wireless? I mean like, no phone, no internet, no distractions or interruptions? If you've lost your focus somehow or maybe you don't even realize you've lost your focus, you will gain some good perspective simply from putting your phones and internet away....just try it for a day. Maybe you could try it for two, or three? Let me know how it goes and what you learn.....
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| Trade in for Something better... |
Here's what I learned and jotted down the other day....
Six of my seven children have come down with the chicken
pox, my husband left for a 4 day men’s retreat, my eldest son tilled up the
phone line yesterday, and a bird had the nerve to poop on my shoulder. The good news is that I don’t live in Alaska
anymore and I am so glad the ground isn’t frozen.
Because…. I had to dig a 16 inch deep ditch for the new
phone line. Rain clouds were hovering
threateningly. I could see them coming
and I never know when it’ll start or stop pouring here in Oregon. The phone man won’t connect the wire back up
until he sees a ditch and since I can’t dig one fast enough for him to wait;
he’ll come back on Monday to inspect the job.
At first the digging was fun….until I hit the cement like
clay at 10 inches…I know because I measured.
You know, 16 inches doesn’t sound like much until you actually start
digging. I had a remarkably clear mind
as I’ve been without phone and internet now for almost 24 hours….I had a lot of
time to ponder a multitude of things in my life because I wasn’t on facebook
looking and reading about everyone else life happenings.
To make a long story short, I want to set clear and well
defined boundaries around the activities, projects, and friends who enter in my
life. They are all good except they crowd
out the best…my family. I have
thoroughly enjoyed these past few days caring for my sick children, and as a
side note…one of them had received the chicken pox vaccination but still got a
full blown case. Sorry to have to burst
all the bubbles surrounding
vaccinations.
BUT don’t get me on that soap box….you know I was thinking
that I’d like to make a real soap box so I could use it for a homemade soap
mold, one of those activities that pop up in my mind that I’ve been wanting to
do now….oh only for 7 years now. See,
it’s a case of “highly distracted mom syndrome.” I’m pretty sure I could reverse this by
focusing on the few important tasks that God has put in my life.
#1 Love the Lord my God with all my heart, soul, and mind.
#2 Love my neighbor as myself…that would be my husband and
children.
I don’t see much room for else. I might have to leave the internet in the
dust, everything good that God has brought into my life has never arrived via
the Internet. He doesn’t really have a
use for it, although the Bible says to redeem the time so I suppose its
redeeming value is that you can connect with people quickly. Except somehow in my mind it all gets jumbled
up unlike when I see people face to face, I remember what they say and I
connect with them as a real person.
So, what was I talking about anyway? (Another case in point of “highly distracted
mom syndrome.”)
OK, it was about the sheer joy I’ve experienced these past
two days just being Mom. Easing the
discomfort of my children, talking to them, looking into their eyes and caring
about what they have to say. Putting wet
wash clothes on their foreheads, preparing healthy food for them, cleaning my
home, working in the yard, reading books and snuggling on the couch, helping to
bathe, brush teeth, and put soothing oil on their skin.
As I worked alongside my one healthy child, who is really an
adult now, at 18 years old, digging dirt and shoveling pea gravel together,
watching him maneuver a tractor with a scooper blade I was so proud of
him. He interviewed for his first job
yesterday. He wasn’t hired on the spot,
like I thought he’d be. (So I’m a little
biased… I am his Mother after all.) But when he came home and I asked him how’d
it went, he responded with his characteristic charming smile and proceeded to
tell me that it would be better for him to just start his own business since he
learned he’d have to buy all his own tools anyway but that he would know next
month when they began hiring. That’s my
boy!
Wasn’t it just yesterday he was pushing his TONKA
truck? As I watched him drive off for a
few days with his friends, I had nothing but pride and confidence that I am
right where I need to be. I am available
and I am walking with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Listening to my daughter’s share the lessons they are
learning from their walk with God and asking me my opinon is so rich and
rewarding. The relationships God has
given me are such a blessing. I watched
them in the past few days serve others even though they were not feeling well
themselves. They don’t complain, they
don’t make excuses; they pitch in where needed and work with vigor and good
attitudes. They even had time to make
healthy brownies.
My kids are truly amazing and I don’t have to take the
credit for it. Oh, yes, I surely would like
to amass to myself some praise but all my failures would surely outweigh it all
as every good parent will eventually and hopefully someday confess.
Speaking of confess, I don’t have to push, pull, or pry my
children into following Christ. They
follow Him because He’s set them free.
They follow Him because He’s a gentle leader. They follow Him because He’s real to
them. They follow Him because He’s good
and cares about them. They are engaged
in relationship with the King of the Universe!
What more success could I possibly want or long for, but that “my
children walk with Thee.” I get it!
The world will mock and scoff my chosen career pathway. I fight against it at times in my life but I
always come up empty handed. When I let go of my self-centered hopes and dreams
and embrace God’s best I am filled with such peace, joy and contentment. Suddenly my eyes are open to the work He’s
doing, the work others are doing or want to do around me, and then all the
half-baked work I get done, suddenly takes on meaning and value. It’s my job….I manage, my work is always
partially done. Perhaps that is why
yesterday I willfully finished the “Gingey Travels the Alcan” story. No, it wasn’t perfect but it was good enough
for my family and children and probably a handful of friends and relatives.
I want to re evaluate and track every activity I choose to
be a part of…what is most healthy for me as a wife, Mother, Daughter, and
Friend? What relationships, activities,
books, service, or meetings encourage personal growth in areas of my
spirituality, my physical well being including nutrition and fitness, my marriage,
my finances, my work and project ideas, my writing, etc?
I’m looking forward to two whole more days, almost 3 of no
phone and internet. I’ve been praying
for guidance and wisdom to know what to do with the “Ole’ Schoolhouse and Gym”
and whatever it is, it will be a device free zone that I know.
