Running with Perseverance

And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  Hebrews 12: 1b-2

That's the first verse I learned in AWANA when my friend invited me to church in middle school.  It's the first of many memory verses, but one that continues to stick and God brings back to me at many different times in my life.  I believe I learned the King James Version that uses the word patience instead of perseverance, but as I've grown, I find the word perseverance helps the message stick better :).

Yesterday, I realized that my house is calmer.  The volume is definitely down :).  It's no less busy and there are still plenty of loud moments, but I'm finding that more of them are joyful.  Yes, there are still moments where my children aren't doing what's asked or bickering.  But they are less often and generally quieter.  And when it does come up, I am making a point to go to them and get down on my knee and talk to them face to face and it's working!  Now, I must remember this and not go back to those lazy habits of projecting my voice across a room or down the hall.

Seeking the Map

New Years Day - that kick off of new goals.  My two biggest this year are to write at least three times a week (I really want daily, but if a goal isn't realistic, it's useless...) and to be seeking God's direction with the kids each day.  I've learned to lean in to Him a lot in the last couple of years and to cry out for help when I am at a loss.  As I've thought a lot about how I can best be an instrument in my children growing into God's plans for them, I've realized that I need to ask Him for guidance in that.  Who better to show me how to help them than the one who can see it all.  And it makes so much more sense to ask before I'm lost - rather than when I already feel off track.  My big challenge in that particular goal is going to be seeing progress.  It's important for me to see that what I'm doing is working in some small way.  I don't need dramatic changes, baby steps are fine, but I know that that even the baby steps in this goal won't be really tangible.  So, that's where the writing comes in.  I'm hoping that if I'm consistent about writing things down, I'll be able to see the baby steps and the progress.  Especially on the days where I feel lost again.  I've been praying a lot about this in the past week, though, and I know God is meeting me where I am so I'm excited to see where He'll take all of us.

Technology

It amazes me how different the world is that my kids are growing up than the one I grew up in.  And I know that every generation says that, but it still boggles me when Hazel or Noah want to play games on my iPod and then navigate it with ease to get to what they want.  When I was their age, personal computers were just beginning to be a reality and we wouldn't have a big clunky one in our house for another five years.  And in a lot of ways, it's wonderful because we get to stay connected to grandparents and friends and family despite the distance.  And we can know what's going on with friends as often as they post updates on Facebook.

And while I'm thankful for these things, sometimes, I also look at the flip side of how BUSY everything is.  I've never been good at doing one thing at a time, but it's pretty comical when I go to sit on the couch with iPod, book, and TV remote.  This past week, I found myself playing on the iPod while watching a kids show with the kids.  Too much.  It was a big splash in the face -- I want things to be a little slower sometimes.  I was adamant that we would never been one of those families with stuff going on multiple nights in the week and so far, I've kept to that.  But things are still so busy inside our house.  So my goal this week is to slow things down.  Limit the multitasking and make sure that at least some of my time every day this week that's spent with my children is truly spent with them - no devices, no other projects at the same time.  I'm betting we'll all feel a little calmer.