Emily is at pre-school today and I have just enjoyed some alone time with Sarah Kate. It has been good not to have anything on the agenda today. I am really burdened that Emily is too busy. I am a very laid back person and I don't have to be doing something all the time. I think my family needs a day or two with nothing to do each week. This is what our week is looking like these days:Pre-school twice a week
Dance
Awana
Women's Bible Study group once a week.
Children's choir
MOPS
Church playgroup
MOPS playgroup
Seems I am always saying," Come on girls, get in the car, Emily where are your shoes?" "Hurry up, come on!"
Life is too complicated to have a 3 year old be this busy. I am praying and thinking about what we need to cut out, if anything.
Feeding Blue's Clues. She was saying, "yum yum umm!"
Comments
I feel as a mother I struggle with similar burdens! It's a difficult place to be, but just pray that He will lead us down the correct path for your family!
try not to overextend yourself!
Blessings!
Have a blessed week, Ginger
We have talked about this - I feel so busy with an 8 month old. But I love all of our activities and it's hard to figure out what to cut out. I'm always waiting for life to slow down and it just never does????
P.S. Those pics of SK are DARLING. She is the sweetest thing.
I enjoy your blog. I hope to start one soon. You are a very good mom to be so intuitive now!!! Oh by the way...your daughters are adorable :)
I follow your blog when I have time, and came across it through your friend Kelly.
God puts these things on our hearts for a reason and it is wonderful that you are asking God how you could simplify your life and maybe even scale back activity level. We have learned the hard way over the years and actually we continue to struggle with when to say yes and no, but God has helped us scale back and simplify our lives some. We have learned that our kids are able to glorify God better and grow in God more and our family life is better, when we are all not stretched so thin with too many activities. Each family functions differently, and for us we have decided we all function better if we are not running all the time.
An example is presently our family is in the middle of praying about if we should say yes or no to a really great program for two of our kids, which is the Junior Olympics cross-country program. Just because we have two kids that are gifted in this area, does not mean we should automatically do it. What our family has been learning is that it is ok to go against the cultural grain and ask God to give us discernment as to which things to say yes to and which things to say no to, and then when we actually say no, sometimes to even "great Christian activities" or sports, or people, it can end up being a blessing for us as a family. It is tough when God has gifted your child with something, you want to use that gift to glorify Him, but that does not automatically mean saying yes. Often times to preserve our family time or down time, which we in our family we need some, God wants us to say no to a certain activity. We have learned that we need to take all our decisions about activities before God and wait until he makes it clear. We try to do simple family devotions a few nights a week and that is when we pray about what activities God would have us be involved in. Awana was so great for so many years, but now with our youngest we do home bible lessons and verses, and it has been just as valuable as what our older kids got in AWANA.
My kids are ages 14, 12, and 8 and God continues to teach me how to be more like Mary and not a busy Martha. My kids are in plenty of activities, but over these last few years God has made it clear we were too BUSY and it was adding stress to our lives that was not healthy and running everywhere, all the time was not glorifying to God. Now we are trying to teach our oldest kids to say yes to some things and no to others. It is a tough thing to learn and to live and teach, but God wants to guide us and direct us into his will for our everyday lives. Even Jesus pulled away and said "no" sometimes to people and things. I am also not the kind of person that has to be "doing something" and me and my family function much better when we have a certain amount of downtime and a certain amount of activities.
I just want to encourage you to continue to seek God with what he would have Emily do and what he might want you to drop. I came from a family where we always finished everything we started and were on the go all the time, and I agree with finishing what you start to a certain degree, but I also have gotten to the point where we allow ourselves to not be everything to everybody and it is ok to just say "this is too much right now". Just take time to be still and sit at the feet of Jesus and he will make it all clear to you, especially since it is already something he has put on your heart to consider and pray about. As we take time to simplify and allow our kids plenty of time to just play and enjoy home and each other, but also be involved in some activities, you will start to discover a good balance for your family. Alright, I need to follow my own advice and spend time sitting at the feet of my Father. Blessings to you and your family!