So as you can see I have been "pimping" out my blog.. was slightly frustrating but I had fun in the end. BUT in the process managed to delete a whole load of posts.. made me grumpy to say the least. And since following up posts are related to the ones I deleted I thought I would recap what I wrote in the post formally known as "clearing the way for creativity". So if you have read it.. skip this post ;)
I am doing a series at church called Lioness Arising by
Lisa Bevere. We are almost done now, and its been really thought inspiring and well, just plain inspiring. An aspect that really stood out to me is being "fully awake". She talks about a lot of times in our lives we are tranquilised, aware of whats going on but not actively living our lives. Living to get through each day and not really being purposeful or particularly productive. We get so swamped in being busy that we loose sight of our purpose and the stuff that we actually want to be doing. I kinda see it as treading water and sometimes going under slightly, bobbing along with where the current is going...instead of swimming to get to where we wanna go.
When I look at my life.. well a lot of the time I am traquilised. Asleep on the job.. like a zombie, getting stuff done but not really doing anything much of importance. Living each day to get the kids to bed so I can relax and then push repeat to the next day (Since my post on this simular topic a while ago life has changed for us.. but I think there is more room for change). And let me just put this in here now.. Obviously there are seasons in our life that are just plain busier then at other times. Like when you are a mum of small children, looking after them and cleaning the house etc. But I don't think it should be an excuse.. I really think society gives us mums of small children an "I'm WAY too busy" card, that we can pull at any time as an excuse. Obviously the expectations are different for me, then for say a single young person. But that doesn't mean that I can't live life awake and with purpose. And of course I still have to do the everyday tasks like laundry/house work/ laundry/laundry :)
So practically what does this look like? What's my main purpose at the moment? Well, it's to raise my kids into healthy, whole, well rounded, confident, loved adults who know God's love and know how to serve. Sometimes I loose sight of the fact that I am helping grow future adults in the blur of nappy changing, tantrums and toddlerness. So if that's my main purpose then I need to live my life in such a manor that reflects that. And honestly most of the time I'm not. I spend WAY too much time doing other things that
really dont have any significant benefit in my life.. like watching bad tv and facebooking! I dont think at the end of my life I am gonna look back and say "far out, I wish I had spent more time watching Home and Away or on Facebook" haha... well hopefully not! :) So instead of doing these mindless things I want to be playing with my kids.. spending quality time with them. Purposeful time!!
And so when I say.. "I'm WAY too busy".. that's not all together true at all. I am busy, but if I find time (and it is A LOT of time to be honest) to watch telly/facebook then surely I could be using that time WAY more productively and satisfyingly... time spent doing stuff that I call, good for the soul. For me its being creative. Baking, making things, being crafty. For you it might mean other stuff. But for ages I haven't been doing these things because "I'm WAY too busy" and because I'm "too busy" my house is a mess/ disorganised. So to fix this I have decided to do a 20 day Organise and Clean you House Challenge by
The Organised Housewife. A lot of the time I think.. hmm I'd like to do some sewing for example, but I know to even begin sewing I am going to have to riffle thru a big messy cupboard to find my buried fabric and machine.. and the cotton is who knows where. It would take me ages to find and then I would have to tidy the dinning table to find space to do it. It just makes me cringe thinking about it. So I dont. I sit on the couch and don't. BORING! So I figure if my household is decluttered and organised, if I wanna spend time doing a crafty thing/baking/whatever, it's there, organised and ready for me to do. Sounds like a plan aye :)
I think there are other ways that being "fully awake" applies to me and my life. Still figuring it all out. But the alarm clock is ringing in certain areas for sure! Watch this space!
