Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. Colossians 3:16 (NIV) I love to write yet I have been sooo busy as of late that I have not really had the time to sit down with my thoughts. When I do sit down, it is usually to finish or work on a project that is underway with a looming deadline. Well, the kick-off event at church has come and gone, Bible studies started yesterday and went pretty well with a few minor glitches and now I sit at my computer with a near empty in box. Hummphf - what's a girl to do? Isn't it funny how we get so used to having "stuff to do" and when we don't we sometimes question what did we do before...... That's when we should kick ourselves back to the time when we had time to do... in my case write or just read a good book. Those things we do to relax and unwind should come to forefront of our thinking, yet as a side-effect of constant conditioning to be busy, we forget our roots as it were. The theme for our women's ministry this year is to get back to the basics. That can apply in all aspects of our lives. I am also adopting this motto in my own life. Too often, I have a tendency to take something small, such as idea for a party and over a period of weeks spin it into a fragment of the original idea with the core being the theme that got the ball rolling. This year, I am going to try and step back and not make everything a production. A recent example of my "normal thinking:" I am new to homeschooling this year and I stockpiled material, books, ideas, etc all summer long. I sat down with my little man, who is 4 mind you, to do some school work. I had a great plan for how the morning would go complete with lessons, things to accomplish and even a craft that we could get done in the span of 45 minutes. Well, as I said earlier, he is 4 and lesson plans and the such don't mean much to him. He just wanted to play his way through the lesson. It was at that moment that I had to step back and realize how much pressure I was putting on him and me, and for what? He is 4 and he is just pre-school age. So, I put my materials in a box. I sat down with him and asked him what he wanted to learn. Now, we take it one day at time. He lets me know what he wants to learn and we go get books from the library, practice letters and numbers with games and reading, and do fun crafts that all relate to the subject or item he picked out. A friend told me early on not to pressure him and to have fun with this. Let him take the lead and not make him stress about school. Show him learning is fun so that he will have a hunger for it. Granted as he gets older, he will have to do things that are more structured to an extent but if I can instill a love for learning now, he will have no problem moving to the next level in his education. I should have listened to her from the beginning and I would have saved myself a stressful day or two. God uses all kinds of situations in our lives to teach us lessons. In my walk with God, He doesn't want me to spend time with Him because I "have" to. He wants me to spend time with Him because I want to . He is like the air -- I "need" to spend time with Him. As I establish and cultivate my relationship with Him, studying His word, reading commentaries, attending studies, praying, pursuing Him, etc will all come natural to me as a desire to grow closer to Him. In that pursuit, I am becoming enriched with knowledge, thus a love of learning about Him is born. I am planning to get back the basics of nurturing and growing in my relationship with Christ. This basic foundation will impact everything else around me. Like a ripple in a pond, it will have a lasting impact. Join me won't you! Dear Father - thank you for lessons in life. I thank you for being the God that You are. I thank you for helping me to take a step back and get back to basics. Please be with me and remind when I try to take on too much or make productions out of small events. Please help me to mindful of my child's needs as well as those of others. Thank you for this day and each day that you give us. In the name of Jesus AMEN. Application:
- What in your life do you need to scale back?
- How do you get back to the basics in your own life?
- Pray and ask the Lord to show what you can cut back in order to have a more fulfilling life that glorifies Him.
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