Life is full of to do lists, over-committed schedules, moms who think less about themselves than their carpools…..and life is full of forgotten, missed or misused moments. We fill our moments with movement from place to place without much meaning. We strive towards success based on productivity and the possibility of somehow meeting our potential through what we get done in a day.
I wonder how many of you can relate when I say that despite a life so filled up, it’s easy to feel empty. There must be more! But where will it fit? What time or energy have I to spare and what space is there for more?
I know God gave me something more than an ability to cross things off the list. I know He designed this life for far more than endless errands, administrative work and corralling the kids. But, where do I find the time and energy to delve into the day in a more meaningful way?
It wasn't long ago when my attempts to find meaning in the midst of daily hustling met defeat and I felt deflated. At the end of each day I found myself falling into bed realizing the next day would bring nothing different…nothing more than the same old routines.
Then, something changed. I don’t know quite where it came from other than divine intervention on my exhausted mommy soul. I’d been praying for direction, a path of more purpose. I simply yet significantly started allowing God’s word to penetrate my personal life. I read, I wrote and I listened. Yeah, instead of desperately looking, I listened.
Rather than striving to solve the problem OF my life, I sought some purpose IN my life.
Instead of driving so hard, I slowed so I could just be drawn…
I think perhaps I first just let go. I released my own ideas of what my life should look like. I had always done things my own way based on my ideas (as if they were any match for my Maker’s!). I believe I’d been making productivity my passion....
Sure, I prayed, worshipped and even talked about my faith. But I never really fully rested on it—or perhaps I didn’t really trust.
I recall a time I told God I'd surrender to His will for my life. I was done trying on my own! I had said it before in so many words when I asked Him to show me how to use my life for His purpose in the world around me, you know, outside my own home’s walls.
But I don’t think I meant it until one time when I sat in my parked car crying with both my baby girls in the backseat (wondering what in the world happened to their messed up mommy!). I threw my hands up and gave it all to God. I was done doing it on my own, in my own self-sufficient, ‘productive’ ways. So, I surrendered....again. I really rested.
I always thought I was defined by what I DO. But I was learning how making something of me is more about lowering myself to a place where the person embodies His purpose. There is no passion or peace in a life led by productivity.
We are only productive when what we do produces fruit for others to fill up on.
We are only productive when our actions ache with heart-work…not always the world’s version of hard work.
Sure, it’s a struggle still and I have to resubmit daily to His desires. It’s not made mothering easy or life’s daily stresses disappear. My hands still do all the hard work of every mommy out there! Duties of cleaning home, giving baths and bearing the weight of responsibilities. Now I’m just TRYING to look at it through a different lens.
Humbly I try to meet His mercies each day with gratitude knowing His grace will get me through.
Let’s recognize the possibility of God in any given moment. Yeah, even the cooking, cleaning and catastrophe moments.
We are not here to experience perfection or bask in the bliss of fairy tale lives. We are here to live, learn and leave this world…and our little ones…with a legacy.
So isn’t the manner with which we perform much more important than the content of the moments? Doesn’t our perspective of even the mundane make more of a difference than the daily routines?
God existing in each of your moments is not just a possibility—His presence is a positivity. YES, Friends, a positivity!
He is always around us. We only need to reach up, to look up, and recognize it. It means that even simple things like every day dinners offer opportunity to tune into His purpose for your life by attending to what’s around you whether it be your child, spouse or the scenery.
Have the courage to step into the sacredness of the moments of your life rather than just going through the motions. It's my version of living well…from the inside out!
I’m the first to admit, I fail to commit what I claim all the time! I admit the conviction I feel at the end of a busy day knowing I’ve missed the meaning. But, I'm trying to tune-in and taking it one day at a time.
Try too. Tune in with me, won’t you? Re-surrender every day.
Living in Life’s Little Sacred Moments,
Katie
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