When I have a Moment to Think

When I have a moment to think, more often than not I am thinking about all the things that need to happen in the day . . . when Mike has to go to physical therapy, how to get Elijah to stop biting me, when I’m ever going to get the chance to finish working my first job for the day, and when I’ll get a chance to start working the second.  Then Mike usually asks me what’s for dinner – and my head starts to swivel because I haven’t even thought about it – even though we’re rounding four o’clock.

If I ever get the chance to get past my daily routine I start thinking about bigger things in life and then sometimes how life could be better or different.  When I think about life a year ago from this very day – it was a LOT more complicated (what with owning a home we didn’t live in!) – but still I feel like I am trying to learn the art of patience, waiting, and trusting God for things I feel like we so desperately need and I have yet to see happen.

And then I am reminded of a passage of Scripture in Matthew 6.  I think in a lot of Bibles it is headed “Do not worry.”  In my Bible it reads “Christine you should read this!”  I’ll include verses 27-34 from the Message translation:

“Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch?  All this time and money wasted on fashion – do you think it makes that much difference?  Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers.  They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it?  The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them.

“If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers – most of which are never even seen – don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you?  What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving.  People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works.  Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions.  Don’t worry about missing out.  You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.

“Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow.  God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.”

I take a deep breath and remember that God is in control.  He knows what we need.  He knows how I feel.  He knows the beginning from the end in my life and understands that today and tomorrow and the next day are all part of the process of my life.  I remember these things, and even though nothing has changed in the natural, something has changed in the supernatural.

When I have a moment to really think I am grateful that God reminds me He hasn’t forgotten where we live and that in His timing, all those things we have been praying for and longing for and hoping for will happen – but in the meantime He sustains us and provides for us every day.  While it would be so much easier if life were perfect – it is awesome that God allows the imperfections in our lives to bring us closer to Him.

So in this moment, I’m choosing to be thankful for the big and the little lessons that God has been teaching me along the way.  I’m thankful for the little boy who at this very moment is drumming on a popcorn tin and a toy drum.  I’m thankful for the man who I get to wake up to every day and who loves me on both my good days and my bad days.  I’m thankful for the moments that God speaks to me and I am quiet enough to listen.