Unexpected and Unscheduled Time – A Gift to be Enjoyed!
Recently, I was chatting with a mom of elementary-aged children and asking her if she enjoyed the long weekend with the gift of an extra non-school day due to icy roads. A huge smile came over her face while she told me how wonderful it was. How they all stayed in their pj’s and enjoyed the carefree pace of the day. At the close of telling me how fantastic their day was, the opposing thought surfaced when she shared that she felt guilty because they didn’t accomplish a thing. In her words, “They weren’t productive.” You and I live this lie, don’t we?
We attach our worth to productivity. We align the value of our days with a list of items we have accomplished and checked off. We equate our sense of worth and value to our to-do list rather than to our worth as our identity in Christ. I wonder if you were able to enjoy the serendipity of no school, no carpool, and instead, experience relaxation at home? Do we evaluate our days based on abiding in the Vine, or on accomplishments? Does our culture value and encourage rest?
We can get so saddled with routine that we hardly know how to pivot and receive the gift of a non-school day as a blessing. I know children are a lot of work and sending them to school…well, I get it. On the other hand, do we recognize what is right in front of our faces? Time to snuggle and read together under a blanketed tent with a flashlight or sip hot chocolate at 9 a.m. Can we receive the goodness that God showers upon us – the serendipitous gift of unscheduled time? Can we be gracious receivers rather than anxious controllers?
Don’t get me wrong, I KNOW motherhood requires daily duties and responsibilities, many of which there is no choice in the matter. However, should our day’s evaluation have more to do with being (relationships) than doing (checklists)? Did you make an emotional and spiritual deposit into your children’s lives on the school-closure day by investing in them when you had the opportunity? Did you forego the usual routine and look to Jesus for how to spend your day?
Let’s look at Psalm 127:1, “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.”
Dear parent, are you carrying the burden of rearing your children, rather than trusting in the work of God, through you by the power of the Holy Spirit, to build your family? Do you look to Him daily, by faith, to live the Christian life? Said another way, is your ‘faith’ placed in your ability to parent rather than in your humility to trust your heavenly Father to build your home?
Further on in this Psalm, verse 2 tells us that when we don’t live by faith “we eat the bread of anxious toil.” Are you anxious? In fact, anxious thoughts should be an indicator on our dashboard of life to shift our focus off ourselves and back on Jesus. Only you know if you are walking your faith by trusting in yourself or trusting in Jesus for your equipping. The outward behavior can look the same until someone crosses us or pride rears its ugly head.
My prayer for you is this: That you will learn to rely on Jesus daily as you go about the challenging work of caring for your children, modeling your faith, and sharing with them that God loves them and works all things for their good, even amidst disappointments and suffering.
As we begin our book study on “Habits of the Household” may we join our hearts together, by faith in Jesus, as He molds us into becoming the person and parent, He desires us to be. In learning how to weave spiritual liturgies into daily rhythms and habits, we can live the gospel in our homes rather than living by faith in our checklists of productivity.
