Monthly Archives: December 2014

Where is my answer?

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So many times we pray, every day and each night
For the things we want most, we pray with all our might.
We pray for strength and healing, we pray for things to go right
We pray for patience or gifts, we pray others may see the light.

We selfishly ask for grace, or blessings, or peace
We sometimes ask for things that are just out of reach.
At times we ask for forgiveness, or maybe we say thanks
But do we stop to acknowledge when things have gone our way?

Songs have been written about unanswered prayers
At times we think we’re alone, no one is there
To listen to our pleas, or to show how they care
We begin to focus on our selves, and the strength we can bear.

Or the strength we cannot bear, at times we stand alone
We can’t imagine how anyone else could have known
The troubles that we face, or problems we have,
Or worse yet, how far we think we have grown.

The truth is we haven’t grown, or maybe not enough
By the simple virtue, we haven’t learned to trust
That all our prayers (or hopes, you may say)
Will ultimately be answered, some way, some day.

But the piece most of us miss, the trickiest part,
The answers are always there, right from the start.
The time hasn’t come for the answers to be revealed
As hard as it is, we must wait for a solution to be real.

And what happens when it comes, the thing for which you prayed?
Are you thankful? Are you grateful? Or are you somewhat dismayed?
Is it that for which you asked? Or is it something slightly different?
How do we recognize it if it isn’t quite how we meant it?

Does it matter if it’s perfect or, better yet, slightly imperfect?
What’s important is what you do with it, how you use it.
Then, take one step farther, can you look back and see
What you have now is what you wanted, if it’s meant to be.

The trouble is life turns and twists, each desire becomes a next
then suddenly the thing we wanted most, turns into regret.
Regret not due to being ungrateful, but more so because
Our needs, wants, and wishes are full of many flaws.

We’re selfish in our choices, we’re blinded by our needs.
We dream big, we achieve it, then something else takes seed
Once it is answered, the most recent prayer is forgotten
And before we know it, our faith and hope goes rotten.

Please try to remember, my dear friends,
what was once will always be,
Faith and hope and trust and love,
Always begins with thee.

Colossians 4:2

 

Multi-Tasking, Be Gone!

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You may have noticed I’ve taken a few days off from my brand new project.  I strung together almost a week of posts then took almost as long off.  Really shows a lot of dedication, huh?  Most of the homework I’ve done on blogging indicates that daily or almost daily content is important to building a brand.  With that knowledge, it may seem even more lame that I took a break off so early in my writing.  Afterall, how do I expect to gain any ground on building my readership if I don’t post?  And for the last few days I’ve carried this guilt and embarrassment.

Then I realized, I have no reason to be embarrassed or feel guilt.  The purpose of this journey isn’t to gain readers or build a brand.  Although those items would be an incredible blessing, the reason I added this project to my already overloaded schedule was to help me focus on my writing hobby, my personal growth, and my desire to slow down.  Slowing down takes several forms and is, by far, the most challenging of my goals.  Of course, I didn’t get to this break-neck speed overnight so, likewise, it’s unrealistic to expect the slow-down to happen in any noticeable increments.  What is realistic is to accept what I can do, when I can do it.  And if what I can do is taking a few days off a brand new adventure to focus on family events, that’s perfectly and wonderfully acceptable.  There is no guilt in accomplishing only one goal at a time. When did a single focus become not enough?  When did multi-tasking become the standard?

I look to my children often as a blueprint for how I should be.  If you’re a parent, you know that we often learn more than we teach.  My kids are much more engaging than the average adult I know and will talk with a non-stop stream of verbal deluge until you feel like your ears have fallen off.  Most of the tsunami of ideas that flow freely from their mouth is interesting, articulate, and enjoyable binding you to their every word.  Basically, my boys talk A LOT.  I don’t mind that they talk non-stop, really I don’t.  Unfortunately, my children can do nothing else while they spin their yarns.  NOTHING else.  I’ve grown weary while trying to patiently listen to their diatribe after stepping out of the bath but before getting on pj’s.  I’ve aged days while waiting for the resolution to their lengthy and drawn-out scenarios of what-ifs while in reality I just want them to put on their shoes.  I’ve watched them crawl into their car booster seats, shut their door, walked to the other side of the car, and opened the driver door only to confirm that their monologue took no pause with an absent audience and their belts are still unbuckled.  In each of these instances, nothing else was accomplished.  Nothing was multi-tasked to completion.  No two birds with one stone.  Their only focus was telling their story and, sadly, that focus was met with a mother that encouraged doing something else while speaking – in essence, asking a 4-year-old to multi-task.

His response when asked why he hadn’t buckled his seatbelt, or put on his shoes, or dressed into his pj’s is humbling, “Because I was telling you something important!”

In other words, at 4 years old, he’s too young to understand why we need to work so hard to accomplish so much while being fulfilled so little.  He’s too young to understand why he should speak while tasking.  For him, the joy is not in the destination but in the journey.  There’s time for shoe tying after the story is told.  Pj’s can wait until after his mom hears his hypothesis.  His seatbelt can be clicked after he points out the bird singing.  If you’re 4, or 7, there is no need to rush to accomplish. There is nothing more important than right now.  There simply is no such thing as multi-tasking.

So if you’ve missed me for the last week, I’m so sorry.  I’ve been busy taking things one at a time.  I sincerely hope, though, you haven’t missed me; I hope you haven’t missed me because you’ve been unplugged & unrushed, spending days with those that matter, listening to each story, song, hypothesis, joke, testimony, or need.  Days are short and unfortunately, this too shall pass.

1 Thessalonians 4:11