Do you ever lose the plot in your
life? What helps you to recover? Ask God what he wants you to see today.
Losing the plot in life is easy
to do with three small children to care for along with things like celebrations
and meetings and a husband who is finishing up ordination classes and leading
ministry and for a girl who loves to be home and just breathe, the plot can get
skewed. Eyes can stray from the cross and grace and mercy to tired and self and
analytical.
Losing the plot sometimes looks
like sleepless nights and lack of sleep and giving in to grumpy. And then God reminding
me how being tempted is not giving in to sin. How taking a minute to breathe and
pray through the exhaustion, no matter how frustrated or angry, is not sin.
Acting out the anger is sin. To lose my temper is giving sin its win but to
grab another book, while frustrated at another long night of bedtime with a
white flag ready to be raised, and holding him in my lap as I read and breathe,
is not. It is resisting and enduring. It is dispersing mercy and capturing grace
and smiles of my nearly inexhaustible children.
And sometimes it looks like
insecurities and thoughts that are not true and combating them daily. Not
giving in to their pressure and lies. And sometimes realizing that they wiggled
their way in to sounding a bit like truth and taking a hard look at the black
and white.
But there is this constant in
losing the plot that always points back to Jesus. Sometimes the further lost,
the easier it is to see the port in the storm and see how far it has drifted.
Recovery and focus have come in
the form of rest, which has taken me three children to scratch the surface of.
It has come through tears and tired eyes and understanding how much schedule
and routine is vital for children to thrive, which directly effects my day to
day and my ability to thrive.
It has come in the form of no for places I would love to go and
people I would like to see and celebrate along side. It has come in the quiet
of the morning, buried in my bible before the children have had a chance to
peak at the day. It has come in the reminder to eat, drink and be merry for
tomorrow is not certain and today could be the last.
It has come with the intentions of hanging a banner of
FUN hanging over my day, to remember to relax and have enjoy and nothing is as
serious as it may appear, as long as everyone has breath and health.
Here's to plots and recovering and God guiding the way.
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This is part of a 365 day blogging series through Savor by Shauna Niequist. If you would like to blog along, whether daily or weekly, I would love to have you for the journey; be sure to link back to the post. And if you are not a blogger, you can join along, too. Just leave your response and answers in the comments.