It's been far too long since I have written a blog entry. Time flies when you're having fun? Or working or living or just keeping up. Time always seems to fly. I have intended to write something many times over but just didn't have anything to say yet and life just happens to, well, fly. Have I mentioned that already?
The thing that has been most on my mind lately is being present in our lives. What happens when life gets too busy to keep up? What do you do when your life is ohhverwhelmed by your 'to do' lists? Do we forge ahead? Do we overlook having lunch with our mom or dad? Do we overlook all the belly laughs of our babies? Do we breeze past the opportunities to sit and listen to our teen tell us everything that happened at school that day....for the millionth time? Do we neglect a close friend or do we not stop to listen to our husband when he asks that we just sit next to him and relax or do we bypass all of those things in our lives because we take for granted that they will all be there tomorrow? Do we forfeit being present in their lives in order to cross off every item on our list so we can feel a sense of accomplishment at the end of our day?
After all, our lists and crossing the things off are what really matter most in life, right? Right? Have you been guilty of that, too? We run through the myriad of things to do in our minds so quickly that we lose focus on what really matters. Then we look around at other women and think how in the world are they doing it all? How am I not keeping up?
My husband and I went last month for 10 days to visit some of our dearest friends who are missionaries in Durban, South Africa to film their ministry and just hang out. Durban is AIDS capital of the world and that was a sobering thought as I was there. The whole trip was amazing and changed my perspective on life. My prayer leading up to our trip and every single day of the trip (often multiple times throughout each day) was that God would allow me to be present in every moment of every day with every child and person I came into contact with. He was faithful to answer that prayer and I was able to embrace every moment I had there (that was no small feat for me). I knew I would have to be extremely intentional in living present for that week because, if you know me well, then you know that staying still in a moment does not come natural for me. I am one that loves to see the big picture of life and tends to run ahead quickly and eagerly to see and do it all but, in doing so, I sometimes miss the details of every day life because I'm so busy running ahead to get to it all done. I'm running and missing things in order to cross everything off my list.
When I came home I realized that my intentional prayer of living in the present while with those AIDS orphans could also translate in my own life here at home, in my kids lives, my husband's life and in the friendships around me that I hold close to my heart. As this last month has blown by I realized that I had (again) forgotten to stop and live in the moment as I said 'yes' to far too many things and quickly added them all to my 'to do' list. How can I forget how to be present in only a matter of a month? Life. Life happens and we hold on for the ride rushing around doing it all instead of realizing we can say no to a few things in order to be present in the things that really do matter.
How many times do we put off what really matters most in life in order to return an unimportant text, read a useless article that will never benefit any part of our lives, watch a tv show that maybe is a waste of our time, or take a call that we know can wait until tomorrow and in doing so, we forfeit time with our husband and kids? All in order to feel that sense of accomplishment of crossing off everything on our list only to find that tomorrow another long list of things to do awaits us again when we wake up.
I'm obviously not saying to shirk your responsibilities. I know we are all busy with our schedules, jobs and obligations. All I want to suggest to you is this...take a moment to breathe and enjoy life. Can it be that maybe we put too many things on our list that really don't need to be there? I mean seriously there will always be more schedules, career ladders and laundry to do but you may not always have that toddler running through your house squealing play with me, mommy. Or you may not always have that teenager plop down on the couch next to you asking for advice on how to respond to that boy who just asked her for math advice but really was asking her out and used the math as an excuse, or maybe your husband may eventually get tired of asking you to sit down and watch a movie with him. You will, however, always have that list of chores, those work responsibilities and all this life stuff that will keep you so busy forging ahead that you may wake up one day to realize that you missed all those little moments of life in between the day you said 'I do' and that empty nest thing everyone talks about. For what? Laundry? A job promotion? An important position in a church ministry? (Yes, church stuff can take up time better spent with your husband and kids too if done out of proportion).
My all time favorite kids movie is Meet the Robertsons and there is a song in that movie called Little Wonders and it sings over and over again 'our lives are made in these small hours'. The weight of those words are profound. Our lives are made in the small intentional moments with our husbands and kids. It is reminder to be intentionally present in each one of your days...for your kids and for your husband. Don't let your busy life steal those small moments from you. It is hard to be intentionally present. Really, really hard when you have seemingly endless things on your list to cross off. However, I am confident that you and I can take time from our crazy lives and take a few meaningless things off our lists of things to do to intentionally be present in the lives of those around us who we love the most.
What do you say? Down with the endless list of things to do and the dishes and laundry....go make some memories with your kids and husband! Let's be honest, they will make more laundry and dirty dishes for us tomorrow anyways, so we might as well enjoy our life before they grow up and don't want to hang out anymore because we've taught them that our lists are more important than their lives.
Let's be intentionally present today, together!
