A portion of this post from the archives, the rest……
From my Heart.
As couple after couple, call us, write us or email, pleading with us to help them put together the shattered pieces of their lives and marriage. To merely be used as a vessel by the Lord, to pour clean water over them and help point them in the right direction, I once again realized we are in a battle…..
A CONSTANT battle to keep our eyes on Jesus. With satan working overtime throwing things at us left, right, left, right, chucking things under our feet to make us stumble. Shrieking with glee when he succeeds.
Because BUSY means Burdened Under Satan’s Yoke.
We MUST keep our eyes on Jesus.
We MUST not break our focus for a mere moment.
We MUST not let anything divide our families, our homes, our marriages.
Our packed calendars rob us of family time, devotion time, prayer time, alone time….
Clear ‘em!!!!
Clear those calendars.
Make date night with your spouse a priority. Don’t just say it, make it happen.
Make family dinner a non-negotiable.
Nothing is more important than family.
No job more important then pointing your kids towards Jesus.
We MUST not let Social Media rob us of conversations during home time….
Leave the cell phone on the charger in the laundry room when you walk in the door; the texts can wait, Facebook can wait. We MUST not let TV and Computer, iPhones and ipads steal precious playtime moments…leave them off until nap/bedtime if you have young children.
Don’t answer the phone during dinner, if its important, they’ll leave you a message and you can call them afterwards. Show your kids with your actions, just how important dinner time is. Spend that time VISITING about the day, not staring at the TV. Our family loves to do “Good, Bad and Blessing” going around the table and each family member shares their good, bad and blessing from the day….try it! You may just love it.
Help your kids make good choices about how many “extra” activities they can be a part of. What happened to the days of letting kids be KIDS?
Just playing. Imagining. Exploring. Sending them out to play and ride bikes until porch lights came on and our moms called us home for dinner.
Remember, for EVERY activity you chose to enroll your kids in, you are taking from the “Family Pie” of time together time. There are only so many pieces to go around before you are left with crumbs.
Sacrifices are made each and every time we say YES to something else. We are raising a generation of busy kids, who in turn will become adults that need to be “busy” because they’ve never learned to just relax, stay home and be still.
And let’s not forget the love of our life, and the time we must spend with them. Sit with your husband or wife for at minimum of THIRTY MINUTES of face to face time each evening. Face to face, not staring at the tv together, looking at each other. Surely your favorite show, or email inbox can wait?!
Who is to be our number one human priority as directed by God’s word?
Our spouse.
Show them! Use that face to face time to learn something about them that you didn’t know 24 hours ago. Look them in the eyes and remember all the reasons you fell in love with them. Do this and watch your marriage blossom and grow. Set a stinkin’ timer if you have to.
JUST DO IT.
Wherever you are, be ALL there. I am not preaching to you, I am preaching to ME! We all need to evaluate how our time is being spent!!!!!!!
Cause guess what satan says?
Every time you are not talking to your kids…..
I AM.
Every time you are not working towards growing with your spouse,
I AM MAKING SURE YOU ARE BACKSLIDING.
When you are too busy?
I AM NOT.
I seek to destroy your marriage and family. I hate it and I hate you. It would be my pleasure to use your lack of time together for harm, for evil, as a tool to ultimately destroy your lives.
When we don’t chose God every moment of every day, we automatically default to satan.
Think about that for a moment……pretty tough to swallow, isn’t it?
I don’t want to default to satan ever. I seem to spend a lot of my time fighting off his attacks on my home and marriage, while balancing a really full calendar full of photography appointments, upcoming blogs I need to write, projects I said I’d be a part of, things I need to get accomplished around my home. It all just feels like too much. Like I have been doing a balancing act for too long, unsuccessfully.
Friends, I need a break.
Somewhere along the last year of fighting for my marriage and maintaining “regular life”, I have lost my focus. I feel as if I have missed an entire year with my family while I was hurting, healing, seeking, sharing and forgiving. The last year can not be viewed as a loss, it’s can’t…..
For it SAVED us. Praise His name!
I am not sure what to say except, I need to cut back somewhere, and one of the places is the blog. It takes my last piece of the “Family Pie” and I only have crumbs to offer the ones I love most. I am also cutting back in other areas, including how many photography appointments I take every week, as the editing process takes much time from family, too.
As an overly busy summer draws to a close, I need time to be Mommy, playing on the floor in the living room or out jumping on the trampoline. I need time to be Wife, relaxing on the couch next to her husband, unwinding after a long day. I need time to do something for me, like curl up with a Christian novel during nap time, on a couch I haven’t sat on regularly in MONTHS.
Mostly, I just need to BE STILL.
That’s what it really all boils down to, isn’t it?
Being still.
Tylan came up to my desk the other day during nap time:
“Mommy’s are busy, aren’t they?”
Yes buddy, Mommy’s have a lot of jobs to do!
“You’re a mommy that takes pictures now too, aren’t you?”
Yup.
“You write your blog……”
I do! {Now, I am wondering now, where he is going with this…….}
“Mommy?”
Yes, buddy.
“I miss when you were just my mom.”
Oh honey bear, I am so so very sorry.
I am taking 3 weeks off of blogging to think, pray, evaluate how my time can be best spent, and mostly……
To be still.
I will miss you, friends, but I’ll be back soon, check back with me around Labor Day.
It’s time this Momma shows her family where her priorities are…….
~T
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