I wear so many hats in life and I loath sacrificing things unless they commit a cardinal sin. Cardinal sins are as follows:
1) I cannot scream it from the rooftops
2) it conflicts with being a wife and mother
3) it causes me physical pain (dramatic moment)
The most important hat I wear, besides being a Christ follower, is being a wife and mother. Yes, in that very order do my priorities lie. I realize the demand children place on our lives and since I only have two I do not even begin to grasp the juggling done by my cousin with five children between the ages of 1 and 9. Children are a gift. By gift I mean treasure, by treasure I mean very valuable, by very valuable I mean you are to take the job of being a parent VERY seriously.
Although I am serious about parenting, my style might not appeal to many of you and so I do not preach my style over another more successful style. Not everyone approves of letting my son catch and keep snakes (Snake Protection Program by Brett) and I'm frowned upon for dying my daughter's hair blonde, well red, last summer(she was 8). The snakes have proved to be safe since they are non venomous and the hair survived to tell the tale of "remember the time when."
The treasure of children is not my greatest job, as that title is reserved for being a wife. You see, without my husband I wouldn't have my children. I have placed him on the back burner and I have neglected him over the years, but as my Spirit became more inclined to precious priorities I realized the importance of this relationship. Date nights, dinners, talking in bed, laughing, and crying(me, always me) are so vital to our relationship. Children can muddy the waters and fuzz the line between our priorities.
A honeymoon(CHAPTER ONE) should not happen once, it should continue to happen over and over again. Our love story should not end with the birth of our first child, but rather should be called CHAPTER TWO. Wow, I didn't mean to write about marriage or children; I meant to write about commitment. Do you understand now how much I value the word commitment?
If each of us took on responsibilities and treated them like we do our marriage or children they might be either wildly successful or a major fail. I often sign up for many things in both of my children's classes to "do" and I volunteer for countless fun activities at the school where I teach, but not without valuable assessment. How excellent are you at the task you volunteer for and will you truly be there and be stellar? OR Will you show up and do your job without joy and for completion's sake?
I have spent a lifetime avoiding things I am bad at and focusing instead on my gifts. I do NOT encourage you to avoid failure as it gets harder to deal with as you grow older. Having spent so much time avoiding failure and having to deal with it as an adult I do, however, know my strengths and my gifts. There are all sorts of tests and personality profiles you can take, but I do not need a test to tell me I LOVE RELATIONSHIP. I love to teach, to serve, to share, to listen, to grow relationships.
Let me give you a quick view of the relationships in my home. I have my husband, our two children, a pony(Charles), two goats(Pip and Augusta Belle), 17 chickens, 5 roosters (Brownie, S'more, Napoleon, Fighting Irish, & Flufferdoodle Doo), 14 fish, 1 hamster(Weasel Scamper), a leopard gecko (Bitey---because he bites), 2 frogs, 2 cockatiels (yet to be named), four cats(Kitty Fluff, Kiki, Scratchy, and Marsha), and 1 dog(Buster). If you add it all up, I maintain 51 relationships in my home. Ok, so the fish are not all that social, but everyone else gets daily love from me.
Some people imagine my house to be a zoo, but I assure you it IS A ZOO. I sprawl out on eight acres and have ample room for everyone to run and play. We have a garden where we grow corn, pumpkins, squash, beets, radish, melon, watermelon, basil, stevia, mint, parsley, brussel sprouts, tomatoes, potatoes, grapes and serrano peppers. We have a barn, a garage, a chicken coop, a garden, a guest house, and the main house. Do I sound over-committed?
These animals allow me to love on them and also share them with people who come to meet or play with the animals. The guest house fills with visitors who sit and rock on the patio with me for hours. The garden produces bounty to share with friends and neighbors, thus growing relationships. This full life also provides opportunity to share with you. I value your time and commitment to the moments you spend reading my life adventures and my inner-most thoughts.
Prioritize your time and commit with excellence. Be married to the things that are fiercely important to you and stand clear of those that commit any of the 3 Cardinal Sins (see list above). Do not be afraid to fail, but use and build your gifts and talents. Be selfish in few things, but selfless is all things. Be you, be brave, and live life to the fullest each and every day. I am going to leave you with something I saw on a friend's wall:
"If you had a bank that credited your account each morning with $86,400-with no balance carried from day to day-what would you do? Well, you do have such a bank....time.
Every morning it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it rules off as "lost" whatever you have failed to use toward wisely. It carries over no balances and allows no overdrafts. You can't hoard it, save it, store it, loan it, or invest it. You can only use it---TIME."
No comments:
Post a Comment