25 | Be @ Peace

Remember yesterday?  When we sat here in this corner of the blogosphere, but were simultaneously cozy in God's lap, looking at the world from a higher altitude? Remember that peace and calm and stillness?

What happened to your day after you floated down all gentle and serene?  I hope you were able to carry God's stillness with you, like a warm fuzz in your pocket.

I floated down, landed gently, buzzed here, zipped there, did errands, slid in a meeting between slices of commitments, returned home for a bit of rest.

That's when the wheels fell off my zen bus.

Background: I'm the kind of gal who likes a tidy house, a minimalist who gets bugged by clutter. When I'm worn out, I especially need a place where my eyes can rest without socks that urge, "Scoop me up!" Or papers that shout, "Process me!"  Or supplies that cry, "Slip me back into my proper place!"

Do you see where this is going?  Do you sense mom/wife crabbitude cranking up?

Instead of feeling like I could rest in my homey little nest, I got my undies in a bundle over this:

Arrgghhhhh!  Here, there, and everywhere.  All. the. time.

Which had me wanting to write a memo to my family.  Something along the lines of:

Dear Mr., Blondie, and BallBoy; 

I love you dearly.  Each one of you.  I love your hugs and laughter, your energy and sparks.  I adore who you are at the core and who you are becoming.  I cherish what you mean to our family, and I celebrate the way I see God shine through you every day. 

But I cannot stand the trail of clutter and crumbs and crap — yes, I'm saying the "C" word! — that you leave in your wake.  It's making me coo-coo for CocoaPuffs and you know I'm turning against sugared cereal, so that means I'm seriously crabby.  Crotchety.  Cantankerous. 

I've tried friendly notes and patient reminders and passive aggressive packing-up-junk-and-hiding-it away.  I've tried bribing and badgering and shouting and pouting.  But I am still looking at this junk. 

You've heard me say it before, but I'll say it again now, just in case this umpteenth time the message will cross the threshold of your attention and stick to your brilliant brains.  When you leave your dirty dishes, your messy paper scraps, your used kleenex lying around, it's like you are saying, "No problem.  Mrs./Mama has got this. She's our family maid.  What else does she have to do with her time?" 

Lots, people.  LOTS.   

So if you want me to continue doing the invisible things like meal planning, grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, sanitizing, scrubbing toilets, picking up dog poop, managing the many-headed hydra that is our family calendar, sewing on Cub Scout patches, making lunches, braiding hair, scratching backs, and all those glorious things that fall under my Chief Sanity Officer of the Family Headquarters, I suggest you start picking up your stuff! 

From henceforth you are on double-not-so-secret-probation. If I do not see a considerable change in effort and clutter control, I will go on strike.  (Or I will go to a spa, whichever is more satisfying.)

With love, affection, squeezy hugs and big kisses,
Mrs./Mama

Really?  REALLY?

Oh, it felt good to draft that memo.  But just seeing my non-peaceful thoughts on the screen reminded me that my frustration is way out of whack.  Just walking into a couple other rooms and witnessing my own clutter set my bitterness back on its feet.

Ooops.  Guess those apples don't fall too far from the tree.

These are first world problems.  Minutiae in the whole scheme of things.  God certainly doesn't see any of this when he looks down on my home each day.  Where did my higher altitude, my better perspective go?

Time for some serious stillness.  Time for some powerful prayer.

Note:  If my clutter craze isn't your burden today, just fill in whatever is annoying the heck out of you in the following prayer.  And if your day is free from annoyances, praise God and pray for the rest of us!

Lord,

Are you laughing at me and my crazy crabbiness?  I'm sure I look pretty funny from where you are.  Help me to adopt your sense of humor, your understanding, your perspective, your unconditional love, because I don't want to be this maniac Mama and Mrs.

I want your peace.  

www.instapray.com

I want to see the world as you see it, looking for love to share and hurt to heal, seeing beyond the mess to where you can write your message.  

I want to ask you to help me ignore the distracting junk and clutter, or to patiently pick it up.  Pathetically, my heart isn't really behind that prayer yet.  Can you create in me a clean heart that doesn't obsess about cleanliness? 

illbeasunbeam.tumblr.com

Oh, Lord.  You see what the world gives to me, and you offer something so much better — your precious peace.  Lasting peace.  Understanding peace.  Peace that promotes loving kindness.  I need daily doses of your serenity and calm, and you always supply.  Thank you for taking the trouble out of my heart, for wiping away my fear and anxiety.  Thank you for clearing away that spiritual clutter so that your peace has room to breathe and stretch and dwell in my heart and all that I do.

The only clutter you care about is the stuff that gets stuffed in between me and you. Remind me  that annoyances will come and go, but people are gifts to be treasured. Help me to nurture my relationships with the lovely little (and big) mess-makers in my family.  Help me to nurture my relationship with you.

And when bitterness crowds my heart, when anxieties create angst, open my heart in prayer.  Coax me back to the sweet, still place where I can talk with you through my annoyances and to the other side of gratitude.  Place your peace in the center of my heart, and make it spread to my mind and my actions and my words.  

I'm going to linger here for a minute, Lord, soaking up the assurance of your peace. My words may fade away to quiet, but my soul will still savor your divine serenity.

Thank you for your precious peace.

Amen



There's more peace on the horizon, should you need it.

Jenn at
LittleHouseOnTheCircle.wordpress.com
is writing a 31 Days series on peace.

Jamie at
WritingInTheStillness.com
offers more peace through her series.

19 | Be Joyful

A weekend full of goodness is winding down slow and satisfied. Four days of play, away from work and school, is good for my family's collective soul. We have been taking a break from busy and bustling from here to there, from dividing and conquering and dividing again. 

When we are busy we have little time to breathe, connect, reflect, or respond in either our situations or our relationships.  Instead we react: with anxiety, frustration, disappointment, or dogged determination.

There is little room in the equation for the slower response of joy.

This weekend we practiced balancing the family equation.  We were deliberate in going slow and weighing choices.  We practiced being. And in so doing, we found ourselves finding joy in the negotiations and compromises and giggles of our collective love. 

Note that word choice: finding joy. It takes some searching, some choosing to work for joy.  And see where we discovered it: not in the squealing bliss of alpine slides or the scrumptious delight of ice cream treats. Our joy this weekend was sandwiched between layers of negotiations and compromises, squabbles and stern looks, whining and chastising.  Layers of work, along with layers of pleasure. It's not easy to be a parent. It can be difficult to be a kid. It's tiring to pack and travel and fill up on fun. But in the gluey, sticky love that binds us together, we choose joy; we find joy. 

Joy is not an accidental, fleeting happy moment. It's that carved out space of cherishing gifts and recognizing all their funky angles and sharp corners, and loving them all the more for that. 

Today we are going to create a place to be still, to carve out some space to choose joy. 

Sit cozily. Breathe slowly. Pray earnestly with me. 

Lord,

You have paved the way to joy with your love. Thank you for your clear direction: when I love you — and when I love others as I love you and myself — I will love my way into your joy. I will love my way into completeness. Fullness. JoyFULLness. 

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete." John 15:9-11

Help me to live out your command to love. I rely on your help and your grace to make my joy complete. Show me how to slow out of the rush, making it possible to rest and remain in your love, to radiate and reflect your love, even when this world tugs me in the opposite direction.

Remind me that joy dwells in the simple and the misunderstood moments, as well as the pleasing moments.  You have a plan that is bigger and brighter than all the daily details. Hiccups in the here and now will work out in the long run. 

“Joy is the settled assurance that God is in control of all the details of my life; the quiet confidence that ultimately everything will be alright, and the determined choice to praise God in all things.” 

Kay Warren

Lord, your goodness is never far from me.  Just as you made the heavens, you made so much beauty here on earth. But you weren't content with merely creating beautiful scenery and creatures in this world.  You continually imbue us with your love, you eternally invite us into your joy.  And you never stop inspiring love in our relationships with our families, friends, and neighbors.

...the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and joy are in his dwelling place.   1 Chronicles 16:26-27

Lord, there are times when joy eludes me. Help me to keep my faith strong and my focus on you in these times. Remind me of Paul and Barnabas and the disciples, shaking off the frustration and pain of persecution, finding joy in spreading your word and your love. I pray that when I run low on joy your Holy Spirit will fill me and complete me and replenish my joyful reserves. 

But the Jewish leaders... stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas. So they shook the dust off their feet... And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.  Acts 13:50-52

When I can't find the joy in a particular moment, a particular day, show me your long range plan. Remind me that you have wonderful joy in store for me up ahead. Help me to truly trust in your promise to grant me lasting, soul-filling happiness and to make my joy complete. Help me to keep choosing joy as a natural extension of my faith in you.

Amen

Let there be Light

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

John 8:12 (NIV)

A dear and inspiring friend put this idea in my head a few weeks back: find a word for the new year, a word to anchor you and guide you in the months to come.

How freeing to frame the new year in a single word that anchors and roots, instead of in a list of resolutions that bind and break and remind me of my human imperfection.

So I prayed for a word, an anchor to ground me in God and lift me to his heavenly heights.

He delivered this: Light.

As in... Jesus is the Light of the World.  He gives the light of life.  He illumines our paths with his example, his embodiment as the Living Word.

As in... embrace the light.  As one predisposed to depression, turn to the light of the Lord, the light of the sun, the lighter side of life.  When darkness tugs, I want to remember to turn to his light that lifts, buoys, calms, brightens.

As in... be the light.  Let my light shine.  Put the gifts that God has given me to work to glorify him, to reach and teach others.  Point to his power and patience and amazing, saving grace.

As in... lighten up.  Let the light that God ignites in me radiate with my loved ones, not just friends and neighbors and strangers in my path.  (Why is it easier to be my better self with them, and not my dearest loved ones?)  Smile more, laugh more easily, lighten my voice, my tone, my presence.

As in... lighten the load.  Be aware of the things I carry in my heart, on my shoulders, the stress I bear in my neck and my back and my hips.  Lift worries up to God.  Sweat anxieties out of my pores.  Shed stress by stretching and letting go.  And yes, shedding a few pounds along the way would be good for my health and my state of mind.

One word, full of God's hope and promise.  I like it.  I like how it creeps into the corners of my days, making itself felt and seen and heard in the most surprising ways.  Morning sunshine bathing the dining room table.  Piano notes streaming soft and high.  A quiet house after weeks of rush and hubbub and celebration.  A Bible, heavy with inspiration, that lifts and lightens my perspective and raises my sights to my Living Lord.

May you find an anchor and a light to your path in this new year.  May Christ free you to be your best self.  May he fill you full to overflowing with his peace, hope, and love.

13 | Spilling Joy

This week I'm digging into the fruit of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).  I need reminders — lots of reminders — to embrace the spirit's gifts and let them guide my outlook and my behavior.  Please join me in these prayers...

These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

John 15:11

Dear Lord,

I woke this morning to furry puppy love, a sprinkling of stars, and soft, fleecy cloud fingers stretching from the southern sky.  You poured joy into my I'm-not-a-morning-person walk.  And when I thought I was content all the way up to my eyeballs, I rounded a corner to — gasp — gaze upon a full and glowing pearl of a morning moon.  You filled me to overflowing.

Lord, help me to always be on the lookout for your gift of joy.  Help me to see it in the small and insignificant routines.  Help me to discover it in the unexpected.  Help me to turn setbacks inside out and find your joy woven in the detours and downturns of my days.  In the dastardly digging dog, muddy up to his armpits... a silly, licky, laughing bath.  In a frustrated homework session with my growing-up girl... an opportunity to embrace and celebrate confusion in route to learning.  In driving forgotten (!!) shoes to school... catching my son laughing, confident, social and comfortable in his classroom.

Lord, I choose your joy over depression, over foul frustration, over dark and stormy skies.  Some days it is the tougher choice.  Some days my grasp on your goodness slips.  Help me to be disciplined in a grateful attitude, a humble heart, a mind set on your righteous will and your perfect way.  Help me to trust in your goodness, which often looks so different from good fortune by earthly standards.  And when I grab hold of your joy, help me to magnify it.  Show me opportunities to share it with others.  Grant me opportunities to spill this joy and glorify you.

Amen.

May you be surprised by joy in unexpected places today.  And may it spill forth from you onto all those lucky people in your midst.

9 | Nurture Thy Self

I love that this topic falls on a Sunday, on our day of rest.  Today—every day—I need God's help to be still, to listen to my heart, and to feed my soul.  Join me in this prayer and this effort to nurture our individual selves so that each of us may be the person God intended us to be, and to share that self abundantly with those in our midst.

For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Ephesians 2:10 (NIV)

 

Dear Lord, 

You know my needs before I even speak them.  You know my heart like no one else.  You know what you, in your omniscience and omnipotence, have in mind for me on this earthly journey.  I matter to you.  I have weight, importance, and significance in your eyes.

As I write this, tears well up in my eyes.  Why do I forget that I hold value?  Why do I put everyone else above me when I prioritize?  Why do I let my cup run dry when I am so frantic to fill the cups of everyone else?  This is so clearly NOT what you have in mind for me.

Forgive me for forgetting myself.  As I nurture my faith in you, as I nurture my husband, my children, and all those you have lovingly placed in my midst, remind me to nurture my self.  I know in my head that there must be good currency in the Bank of Liz before I can invest in others.  Help me to live out this truth.

Help me to make regular deposits love, rest, exercise, positive people, and satisfying activities that make my heart sing.  And when the necessary routine of life depletes my personal holdings — when the laundry and dishes and schedules and work wear me down — help me to re-frame my responsibilities and see how they can add joy and contentment to my life.

Help me to maintain that important balance of nurturing myself and sharing myself with others.  When I tip too far toward my own needs, give me that craving to serve others.  When I tilt too far toward giving my all to others, urge me to find my own slice of wilderness and retreat with you. Show me how to do the things I love in accordance with your higher love.

My best days are those when my soul is full, my heart holds joy, and I am doing your good works.  Nurture me with contentment and peace so that I may always be ready, able, and eager to follow your will and your way.

Amen.

"These things I have spoken to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full."

John 15:11 (NASB) 

I pray that you are overflowing with the love and joy that comes from nurturing yourself with God's goodness.  How can you invest in yourself today?