{continued thoughts from yesterday’s post}

For months the struggle was the same :: How do I honor each child’s felt need for my undivided attention — and still accomplish the tasks of my days? The children are with me all day, every day.  We study together, pray together, craft together…

I’m a strong believer in bringing our children along in the journey of family — ‘together’ is just how we do much of life.  Yet, in this season, as a group, they cried out for something different.  No — their words did not express these thoughts.  But a mother knows.

She knows when something is just ‘off’ or unsettling.

And so I prayed.  Months ago, I asked the Lord to place a finger on what needed changing.

And He answered me.

“Gather the moments.  Pick up the pieces of time scattered throughout the day, and rename them.”

While I enjoyed face-to-face time with each of the children and each one found bits of my undivided attention, those moments were sprinkled from morning until evening.  An ‘aha’ recognition of this caused me to pause and ponder…

“Gather the moments…”

I did not add to our daily rhythm and routine.  I did not create more for me to do.  And I didn’t really increase the time spent with the children.  In His grace, God gave me a bird’s eye view of our days and I regrouped the time already spent.

Renamed the efforts already a part of our day into what has become a special time :: one half-hour with each child, each weekday — just the two of us.  Intentional on my part to release other tasks (no multi-tasking) and a gift to the children.  I wanted to offer a catchy name, but my young ones caught on to ‘intentional half-hour’ and it stuck. 🙂

Oh, by no means is this accomplished perfectly!  We aim for the goal and allow for flexibility as life comes along; in fact, the last few weeks have been bumpy.  Yet overall, this has been a good fit for this season.

We rest in the gathering of moments.

How about you? Would renaming what you already do into a different package or wording bring peace?

We often fret about our lack of time.  Yes…there is need for organization and rhythm to our days.  Sometimes however, we lose sight of what we ARE accomplishing and how we ARE moving forward.

We are a society of improvements.  Of constantly feeling the need to update and upgrade…leaving many of us upset.  This should not be.

Pause today and consider…

What is going well? — Where is there growth, movement from point A to point B even if the destination is still ahead?  Name it, label the actions with words to describe the achievement.

Gather the moments…

 

grace for today.