busyness

You laugh, but it's kinda scary how realistic that cartoon is!

I think it's a mom thing. Or maybe it's just a general life thing. I am always busy. Always. I like it that way, though. Being busy keeps me from being lazy, and as crazy as it sounds, having a million things to do energizes me. Confession: I was that kid in high school, involved in everything under the sun. It seems that "OA"-personality (as my health teacher called me... an over achiever, I think she meant for it to be negative, jokes on her!) has transitioned into mom-hood. I don't get involved in things because I feel some nagging pressure, or to impress others, I just genuinely enjoy it. I love being around people. When I really started understanding the gospel, the thing that got me was the idea that life isn't about me. When it's less about me, living is less stressful, it's freeing.

I don't think I'm alone in this busyness thing. I think it's common to feel like the normal is when you're going 90-to-nothin' 24-7, and sometimes you feel like you squeezed an extra few hours into your day. Hopefully we enjoy what we're doing--at least most of the time. Working isn't a bad thing, Adam and Eve were told to work before bad things ever came into the picture. And, what God made was good. 

In our busyness, though, it's easy to get carried away with our to-dos and forget to worship. The spiritual disciplines (prayer, scripture reading, meditating, fasting, etc) are all good things, but let's be real: we don't have 8 hours a day to commit to these things. I'm lucky if I get 30 semi-quiet minutes. I can promise you, they never look like this: 

Ha! As if. (It's usually more like the first picture, just with a bible in my hand instead of a phone.) While we still fight to have any sort of precious time, it's good to find little things that also stir our affections for the Lord and to do them often.

At home group last night, just the girls met and we talked about a few things apart from the traditional disciplines that make us thank God for being a good God that gives good gifts. Here are a few:

music

any: christian, pop, rock, folk, whatever floats your boat. for me, it's good music that makes you dance. i dare any one of you to listen to red hot chili pepper's hump de bump as loud as your speakers will let you and not dance around to that mad-awesome electric guitar

people

this one is my #1. i love people, all kinds. the more amounts of different people who can come together and enjoy each other the better. in college, i'd walk around campus and enjoy how creative our God is to make so many uniquely wired, beautiful souls. diversity stirs my affections like no other.

being creative

doing whatever it is you love to do to feel creative, free from distractions. this was one of my favorites from last night. just make something pretty, it doesn't have to be perfect, turn off the tv and radio and just let your mind wonder.

running

i didn't resonate with this one as much, but for so many people just getting outdoors in fresh air and wondering whether you are going to survive the next block really stirs their affections. i don't get it, but it definitely is a thing.

a deep breath in cold air

i love this, it's so simple. just breathing and enjoying the change of seasons reminds us that God is a good gift-giver.

nature

in Dallas this one is a little more difficult to find in our concrete jungle, but going outdoors and seeing pretty things that our good creator created for us to enjoy. and, to think, this creation we know is not how it was created and will be even greater one day. that blows my mind when you look at something like this:

beautiful.

What about you? What little things remind you God is good?