My goal for today…13 things.

Sometimes things happen around us that startle us, stir us, make us think more deeply about our existence and how we’re spending the time we’ve been given – this gift of life.  Sometimes they’re good things – sometimes hard.  Sometimes they’re the cutting moments that make us remember how short life can really be.  But on those days when we’re listening deep, we often have this sudden insight to take a long, hard look at how we’re doing this life thing.  And maybe begin to make some choices, on how we want to keep moving forward – living – and what we want our kids to learn from it all.

I did that, this week.  I realized there were some patterns that I wanted to change.  Desperately.  So the process began…and continues on.

Here’s what seems to be true in our culture –

We can waste too much time living life in the negative.  We can allow worry, fear, anxiety to seep in, grab hold, and affect or control our every decision.  We can busy ourselves into sheer exhaustion, dragging our kids right along with us on that never-ending pathway, always rushing to the next thing.  We can live every day desperate for meaning, but all the while trying, though unsuccessfully, to satisfy our deepest longings with the wrong things, the things that can never fill our empty hearts.  We can go through the motions of the day, doing what needs to be done, but inside we’re numb, hurting, distracted, always striving to feel better.  We can begin to accept that the place of stress is really more normal for us than a place of peace.

Here’s truth that can give hope –

We can stop.  We don’t have to live like this.   We can ask God for help.  We can change our focus.  Remember what’s most important in these days we’ve been given.  And start living.  Really living.

Of course, that doesn’t mean we just up and quit jobs and responsibilities.  Or stop all activity and only sit and soak for the rest of our days.  Or try to develop some unrealistic Pollyanna type of lifestyle.  It simply means we make a choice – to change our minds, our attitudes, our actions about how we live each and every moment gifted to us.

So, my desire for today, and really, every day, here on out – is to choose wisely what I do with this gift of time.  This is what I desire – for our kids too.  Not stuff.  Not just a good education or a great job.  Not just to succeed in life.  But God’s wisdom – on how to live life.  To know and understand what it is to truly love God, care about people, and treasure every day.

And just maybe, if they see it lived out through me, they’ll carry it forward, to the next generation.

My goal for today…13 things:

Pray more, worry less,

Laugh more, stress less,

Hug more, hurry less,

Listen more, talk less,

Love more, judge less,

Dream more, fear less,

Play more, rush less,

Trust more, panic less,

Treasure more, strive less,

Praise more, criticize less,

Give more, hold on to less,

Forgive more, harbor less.

Enjoy more, compare less.

Breathing in His grace…again today.