5 Minute Friday- REST

Once again I join in with a large community over at Lisa-Jo's blog for a Five Minute Friday!  I encourage you to check it out. It's not just for moms, there's encouraging words for everyone. Let's face it, who doesn't need a little encouragement now and then?

REST

It's something I can't seem to do but it's always on my list. Right after that load of laundry, that meal for the kids, that last bit of cleaning that I've put off all day. On the off chance my "check things off the list" personality just gives in to moments of calm and peace, I'm better for it.  It's a reminder that I need it. That I thrive in it. It makes me a better mother, a better wife and a better person in general.

I often forget that the Lord commands us to go and do and that hand in hand there's plenty of scripture that he commands us to rest.  "Be still and know that I am God."  How can you be still and not find rest? That's just one of many.

We live in such a fast pace world. It's more natural to me to be talking on the phone and making lunch for the kids while checking my email than it is for me to sit down and soak in a moment of doing nothing.  It's uncomfortable. It's sometimes boring.  It's ESSENTIAL.  I'm working on being intentional about still time. Being intentional at picking up that book I've been trying to read for 3 months at night instead of continuing to clean, fold and fix. The world needs me rested and joyful in order to fulfill my purpose. So here goes...

STOP  

Home

There's this thing on this blog I follow called Five Minute Friday.  It's been a fun thing to explore and I'm finally mustering the courage to go there, to write for 5 minutes and to see what comes out of it. If you'd like to check out Lisa Jo's blog, you can here: http://lisajobaker.com/five-minute-friday/

Home
"When you return to the familiar, the unchanged, you realize just how much you yourself have grown."

Over the years I have returned to the house I grew up in numerous times. My parents have lived there for almost 30 years. It's the first place I found home. Not because of the walls, the familiar cracks in the sidewalks where we rode bikes each night from the warmth of spring to the chills of fall, or the corner room I spent years in as I learned who I was navigating the teen years, but because of the love and the lives that inhabited that house with me.

Now as I'm learning to fly outside of that comfy place of love, I still find myself recalling those familiar moments in that home. And I remember that a home is so much more than the place. It's not confined to a house. Home is that places in my heart where the memories and the familiar live. It's the places where the love and the living and the everyday and special moments reside. Home is big enough for the past and the present and whatever the future holds. Home isn't a place, it's a part of me that goes wherever I go.

I pray that as I raise these little humans, I can instill that home inside them. That they know they can always find the love, the laughter and the comfort of home wherever they are. And they can come back no matter how they have grown and find just that.  Just like I do.

The Years are Short

I don't recall where I heard it exactly, but it sticks with me and runs through my head at least 22.5 times a day. 

"The days are long but the years area short." 

Oh my, how true this is. It comes to me in the quiet sweet moments and in the screaming, loud, chaotic moments that make up our days. My world was rocked last week as we celebrated with my little E man. He turned 4. FOUR. As in, four whole big years ago we welcomed him into the world on that snowy Sunday morning a week before we thought he would actually arrive. It's been 4 years since Klondike (aka: the white wonder dog) lost his place as our child and became our dog. It's been 4 years since we drove out of the parking garage at Baptist Hospital forever changed and drove down West End with everyone else whose lives were the same.. they were simply taking a lunch break at noon on a Tuesday.  But not us.. not our lives. We were now responsible for a small, helpless human handpicked by God to be raised by us.  To this day it still perplexes me at how the world goes on as usual when miracles like this happen everyday. Amazing. 

When I ask how 4 years have gone by so quickly, my Mr. Literal simply replied, "Well, I had 4 birthdays mama! Now I'm 4!" And oh the excitement in his voice. He's so proud to be growing up. So eager to be big and do things like "go to high school and have my own iPad and be able to watch the Monster Truck movie whenever I want to". (Yep, exact quote from my 4 going on 40 child)  

Gosh I wish I could explain to him that growing big isn't always wonderful. It's not as glamorous as it seems. Somewhere along the way the magic changes into reality and you have to actually be "big".   And the "big" years last longer than the "little" years. You can't go back, no matter how hard you try.

Here's to you my son. Here's to your enthusiasm at little things, your tender heart, your passion for mighty machines and how you can light up a room with your garage door dance. (That's his signature dance move, ask him about it next time you see him!) May you always carry the same if not more joy with you as you grow to be that big boy you long to be.  Hang on though, soon you will see... "The days seem long, but the years are short."