The Rules

Are you a "missed the trees for the forest" type person or "missed the forest for the trees" type?  I tend to be bent toward the latter statement.  I will admit I often have to step back and realize that I'm consumed with rules instead of the big picture?

Last spring Isa and Aly decided to play soccer!  I almost fell out of my seat when Isa responded "yes" to the question.  A few years ago she didn't want to cheer because she would get "too sweaty".  As she was a seven- year old never watching sports in her life, I found this process intriguing and frustrating.  Because her team had all played before,  they knew the point of soccer which is  to put the ball in the other team's goal and to stop it from scoring in your own.  So their practices were about the rules,: off sides, corner kicks, positioning and such.  Isa was learning a lot, but was missing the big picture.  This was evident in her very first game.

Isabella at her first game - Spring 2013 

Isabella was on defense; the opposing team was coming down the field.  The girl with the ball dribbled through the mid-fielder, and she had two defensemen and a goalie left.  As Isa came up to meet her (what she should have done), she looked back and realized she was out of position.  At that moment she turned from the girl on the opposing team and ran back to her spot.  Happy!  She was obeying "the rules", she missed the point!  Yes, as Isa turned her back and ran to her proper position, the other team scored.

After the game it came to me.  I've done that very thing.  I've missed the big picture; the point of "the game" just because I was worried I was out of position.  As a christian, I've become so obsessed with what is right and wrong that I lose sight of the big picture.  The point, what's most important: I believe in life we are to love and be loved.  We have no greater example of this than Christ.

Instead of being overcome with details of right and wrong, can we remember that we are surrounded by a world which is desperately searching for love and acceptance.  The love and acceptance that is only found through Jesus.

For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. - Galatians 5:14 The Message 

Loved

Are you afraid to stop?  Does the thought of slowing down stress you out?  When your to-do list is near an end, do you quickly come up with 10 more things that just have to be done by tomorrow?  What about noise?  Do you treat quietness like a disease?  Is your tv always on or your phone never out of reach?  When you see emptiness in your schedule is the urge to fill it unbearable?  I have to say of myself "guilty"!

There's something in that quiet lonely time that reveals emptiness;  I become aware that I'm not fulfilled.  Because I tend to value myself more by what I do than who I am, I don't like the discontentment I feel. My ultimate goal is to be fixed.  A few short months ago I was challenged by this statement from one of  my hero's, Sheila Walsh: "All my life I've tried to be fixed but I realized I'm not fixed, I'm loved." Those words replay in my head often.  

I have learned that if I pause long enough, through the emptiness, I become fulfilled.  When we admit we are empty, something powerful, something life-changing happens; a quiet still small voice brings all our fears to rest.  There's a voice that calls us to peace.  A voice that says you are not alone.  It doesn't matter what you do, you are loved.

The realization of that love changes everything.   If you never stop and listen, it's hard to hear the reassuring voice of Our Creator.  
 

Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.

Romans 3:20 NIV

A Stolen Moment

Have you been in that place where you know something has to give?  When you're being hit on every side, and you want to clone yourself?  So you just try harder and go faster.  This is where I have given myself, and you, permission to steal.  I'm learning that if we don't steal a few moments away, life can easily pass by.  It's time to welcome what I like to call "Stolen Moments".

When we choose not to stop and take time to look and listen, we conveniently miss out - miss out on the most important parts of life.  It's time to be intentional with our time.   I believe that success in any relationship is built on little moments we choose to steal.  Moments that seem so minute yet mean so much.  

As a mom who feels time torn, I admit that one thing I struggle with is bedtime.  My babies used to go to sleep so easily: we rocked; cuddled; laid them down without a peep; then off to whatever we needed to do.   Then,  we went from crib to bed.  Need I say more ........ bedtime began to drag on FOREVER!  This drives me crazy because I "need" to get so much more done!  So we've been trying something different.  You know besides screaming "get back in bed or else....." It doesn't always work but we've been giving our girls time at night.  Time dedicated to talk, share and cuddle.  This means starting a little earlier but there's something so beautiful about a restful at-peace child.  This past week as I lay with Alexandrea, I began to reflect on my love her.  In that moment I was reminded of how much my heavenly Father loves me.  And out of that came this poem - This is my first one and maybe my last....don't judge too harshly.  


Words were not just thrown in air
We had said our goodnight prayer
In perfect rhythm our two hearts beat
We agree this moment could be lived on repeat
Like a satisfied purrr
Is me and her
Connected by much more than hands
We're encompassed by unfathomable bands
Life for her with out me does not exist
I feel the same this love I can't resist 
And in that moment I become so aware
His LOVE for me does not compare

It's important to steal a moment because in that pause His love is as loud as a roaring applause.  We search and search for love running in all directions and yet He says, "Be still and know" ........ know what?  "Know that He is God" ..... and God is Love.   This week will you stop? Will you listen? Will you look?  

Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth 



Psalm 46:10

A Child

You know those  "ahha" moments?  The ones where the light bulb comes on.  I had one yesterday and it's all thanks to my four-year old.  I was listening to music and journalling when my little monkey bounced in.  She opened my night stand drawer and grabbed "the journal".  I learned that if I wanted to journal without having to wake up at 5am before my children began to pull on me, I needed a little trick.  So, I set aside one of my journals for the girls. They draw/write/scribble in it to their little hearts' content.  They both have their own journals, but there's something special about mommy's.

As I wrote, Alexandrea sat down beside me on the floor and began to draw.  "This is a picture of you mom," she said with a smile.  Wanting a little more quiet time, I asked her where she was in the picture.  A few moments later she stood up holding the journal. "This is you and me mom! We're wearing our swimsuits!"  I looked at it and told her how much I liked it, and then it happened.  As I looked down to continue writing, the conversation began: "Mom, is it true that none stand beside Him?" It took me a second to realize she was referring to the song that was playing.  I could see her mind beginning to swim.  She was filtering through the thought that if Mom says He's always with us how can none stand beside Him. "It is true. None can stand beside Him because no one can compare to how great He is, but He reaches down and stands us up." I tried but these are the questions that I love to hear Joey respond to; I have a gift of making things a little more confusing. And then the questioning in her mind stopped and her response was so care free, "Besides, (she shrugged her shoulders) He stands beside us." And she danced off.  She was done, and I was left sitting there asking, "Is it really that simple?"

My "ahha" moment, YES...... it is that simple.  An Incredible God, All Powerful, All Knowing, Full of Righteousness and Glory, One of Whom I am completely unworthy, stepped off His Throne to stand beside us.  His LOVE for us is so great that He humbled himself to become a human so we would never have to be alone.  Does that make His Greatness any less?  Quite the contrary, would you not agree?  And when we truly get this don't you think we should walk with a little dance in our step?

She later danced in and drew God beside us ;)

People brought babies to Jesus, hoping he might touch them. When the disciples saw it, they shooed them off. Jesus called them back. “Let these children alone. Don’t get between them and me. These children are the kingdom’s pride and joy. Mark this: Unless you accept God’s kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you’ll never get in.”

Luke 18: 15-17 The Msg