Last night, I went to a meeting that I was dreading. It's not really that I didn't want to go the meeting, it was that I didn't want to "go", period. Life is so busy and, with Don's party last week and his family coming in, I worked double-time all last week to clean and prepare. I had several 1:30 a.m. mornings which, to some people, may be a regular routine (like Jan at "The Joy of the Lord is my Strength"), but I'm one of those people that require 9 hours of sleep a night to be able to function. For several weeks, I've been going to bed around 9:30 p.m. and rising at 6:30 a.m. and have been feeling the most rested I've felt in years. I've been happier, less irritated with the children, and don't "have to have a nap" in the mid-afternoon, struggling to push through without one.
In addition to very late nights, I've been going non-stop. Dane has Cub Scouts on Monday evening twice a month now, I have a meeting every Tuesday night, we have to be at Church by 6:00 p.m. on Wednesdays for Deanna's choir practice and Don's, Dane's and my Handbell Choir Practice, we attend a prayer meeting on Thursday nights, and we absolutely collapse on Friday. Dane also has soccer practice on Friday afternoons from 4 - 5 p.m. and games on Tuesday afternoons from 4 - 5, and Deanna has her Girl's Group (like Brownies, but called "Little Sisters") two Wednesdays a month from 3:15 to 4:45, which I lead.
My sister posted yesterday about choosing a quiet, still life to be able to focus on the Lord. That's a joke for me. But I take comfort in the words of Javier Abad and Eugenio Fenoy in their book, "Marriage: A Path to Sanctity". In their chapter on "The Sanctification of Matrimony", they state
"In the first place, Christian couples should live a spirituality which is eminently lay and secular. It would be wrong for them to adopt a spirituality proper to priests and religious....
It is this condition that determines the spirituality proper to Christian couples. It leads them not to withdraw from the world like the religious, but to devote themselves to enthroning Christ at the summit of all human activities, of all the family, social, and professional responsibilities they have...In the case of married couples, this means finding Christ in and through the fulfillment of family duties; it means showing their love for God in the effort to face the difficulties of married life with a generous heart and a spirit of self-abnegation."
Despite our busyness, Christ WILL be present to me in meeting the needs of my family, my daily chores, and my part in the education on my children. I will see HIS hand in the way I respond to fighting siblings. I will hear HIS voice whispering direction in my ear when I'm confused or uncertain. I will feel HIS hand guiding me through my work, and I will feel HIS presence always beside me as I meet the needs of this very active family He's entrusted to me.
There is great hope even in busyness. God sends us His mercy, falling like raindrops.
P.S. I thoroughly enjoyed the meeting last night. I got some prayers and had a wonderful time of worship and fellowship with dear friends. I'm very glad I went.
7 comments:
Kiddo, I must disagree with you and this is why...and I quote,"In the case of married couples, this means finding Christ in and through the fulfillment of family duties...". To most of us Cub Scouts, tuesday meetings, soccer, Little Sisters, even church handbells are classified as extracurricular...not family duties. Family duties are the things that keep our household running smoothly, and YOU training up your children spiritually. I think taking this author words the way you did might be searching for justification for joining the secular rat race. Just my opinion but something you might want to think about.
Sis
There are several books that God has directed my way in the past couple of years as I've searched through my busyness to find a reason for living 'that' way.
"The Hurried Child" by David Elkind, "The Overload Syndrome" by Richard Swenson, and most recently "The Home Court Advantage" by Dr. Kevin Leman. All the books address the issue of stress in adults and children brought about my being pulled into the mainstream of life here in North America. We have far too many choices and the inability to filter out what is important.
I believe it is Satan's way of destroying families - everyone pulled out of the home constantly to go and DO something. The activities may be really wonderful, even useful to society, but not GOOD for my family if it means being on the run all the time. Stress(from busyness) is the number one cause of many of our problems, not the least of which is the overuse of anti-depressant drugs.
When a doctor is looking for the cause of a patient's illness, he begins with symptoms. Our society has all the symptoms of a machine that is running itself into the ground.
I must agree with Colette on this one.
P.S. There's no references to Jesus ever rushing around. He addresses our tendancy to do too much in his dialogue with Martha. Luke 10 40-41
"But, Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me! Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better..."
Another book, Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World, succinctly addresses the question of a woman's tendancy to busyness. The author is Joanna Weaver. An excellent resource and Bible Study.
Patti,
So sorry sweetie...looks like you were caught between us "two far righters"...kinda like being on "Hannity and Hannity"! Luy you and those babies lots!!!
TrinTrin
Yeah, I feel that in sharing where we are at this juncture of our lives, you may have felt judged. Not the case. The busyness question is a GREAT one to ask, in a society that doesn't know how to slow down, and be still.
I think you're a great person, Patti. I love your family dynamic, and find your interests delightful to hear about. So, no need to be discouraged, just keep living in obedience to Him - the only one who's opinion matters anyway.
Patti: I think you do a very fine job finding a balance in all this. As someone who watches your life on a day-to-day basis, I think you are good at calming down the pace when you need to. If you're getting on overload, you stay home from a meeting. There is nothing wrong with that. You can't sit at home and be a hermit. That's not what God has called you to do. Keep up the good work.
Thanks for the support and encouragement, all.
Daniel, I appreciate the reference. It is similar to my quote, I think. And I'm quite sure that the only chance I may ever have of sainthood is striving to raise children that lay it all on the line for the Lord.
Rach, I try, but you know how hard it is to not feel condemned when we discover we fall short of being "Super Mom". It's not so much pressure from other people as pressure from ourselves. I was talking with my Mom about it today on the way home from walking the kids to school. She said, "It makes no difference how busy you are, if God has, indeed, called you to that busyness. It also makes no difference what others think. You need only to please God." While I know that and I'm sure some of you said the exact same thing, it always sounds different coming from good old Mom.
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