Read Reflection 1 {Showing My Children Jesus} here.
Reflection 2
December was a month full of stressors. I spend a lot of time at the kids’ school. I volunteer in the teacher workroom, I help plan science lab lessons for the whole 4th grade and teach David’s class when it’s time for their lab. I’m room mom for David’s class, which meant I organized the class’s Christmas party. I also provided goodies for and attended parties for Alex’s and Miguel’s classes. So, I was planning, teaching shopping, baking, candy-making, all in a short amount of time.
By the time school let out for the holidays, my life was even busier with family in town. I had extra people in my house from before school let out for the holidays until Sunday. Not that I’m complaining! I love having family in town! But..it’s one more thing to do. One more person to take care of (or two or three more). Plus it means that I actually need to clean house instead of pretending that it’s clean. ;)
In the midst of this, I had a minor surgery and had a broken foot. Oh yeah, I was also heavily involved in planning the future of the Pearland Community Band.
Yes, a lot of stressors were in my life. I never felt stressed, though.
You hear that? I never felt stressed.
How did I make it through? I spent the month focusing on God. I chose to act out of love. I served others because I wanted to. Because my heart was overflowing with the love that God pours into my soul. I invested myself in God and was able to turn around and invest myself in others. When I started thinking about all I had to do, I did get a little antsy. So I took a deep breath and said a prayer. It immediately calmed me and recentered my focus God and on the moment. Yes, I had to plan ahead, but I spent a lot more energy doing and enjoying than thinking about the rest of the to-do list.
One last thing: I didn’t aim for perfection. I aimed for comfortable. When I have visitors, I want them to be comfortable. A sterile home is not a comfortable one. At least not to me. I didn’t worry if something wasn’t perfect. Like our Christmas dinner. First, I intended our main meal to be for lunch, until I realized it was 11:00 and I hadn’t even started cooking. When my sister and I did start cooking, I ran out of eggs and regular sugar, almost ran out of brown sugar (a MUST for the sweet potatoes!), and forgot to cook the veggies until after everything else was ready to serve. I almost forgot the rolls, too, but had enough time to cook them because the veggies were so late. Oops! Even with those mistakes, we had a delicious meal filled with good conversation. Our house and our hearts were full. Mine included, because I focused on the people in my house, the babe in the manger, and my Abba Father, my God, who is all that really matters.
So what do I take from this? When you think about the things from God, your heart opens up to endless possibilities. When your motivation for what you do is based in Him, it doesn’t have to be stressful. Yes, you can work hard and end your day exhausted, but it’s a good kind of exhaustion. The kind that comes wrapped in joy from service to others.
