Thursday, February 10, 2011

Slowing Down to Live

In a previous post, I shared about struggling with fear.  I still struggle with fear to some degree, but I have had many breakthrough lessons along the way.


I will not desecrate this moment with ignorant hurry or sordid ingratitude.  Ann Voskamp


Because my fear was mostly about losing my children or my own life, I began to look on these lives with more gratitude.  Sometimes it's as simple as opening my eyes in the morning and thanking the Lord for another day or picking my girls up from school and being thankful that I get to see their faces another afternoon.  Overall, though, it has been about slowing down and living in the moments I have been given.  I drive slower and take in life.  I sit down and hug my children before they walk out the door.  (If I don't have time to drive slower and sit down to hug my kids, then my priorities are out of order.  I need to rearrange).  If my kids are making a lot of noise, I try to enjoy the sound of their voices -- even their fighting voices.  I let them take pictures and videos of me when I look terrible because if I'm no longer here, they'll want to see and hear me regardless of what I look like or how I sound.  I take every opportunity to teach in case it's the last.  I find joy in hanging a dirty little boy's coat because he is here today.  I try to let the little things go -- most things are little.  


I've been reading Ann Voskamp's One Thousand Gifts.  You can visit her website at www.aholyexperience.com I am amazed that many of her words are the things I've been learning, but when she writes them down, they look really pretty.


They say time is money, but that's not true.  Time is life.  And if i want the fullest life, I need to find fullest time...In Christ, don't we have everlasting existence?  Don't Christians have all the time in eternity, life everlasting?  If Christians run out of time -- wouldn't we lose our very own existence?  If anyone should have time, isn't it the Christ-followers?  Ann Voskamp

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