Staying in the Now is Staying in the Know!
Welcome to Coffee Hour and thanks for stopping by for a little encouragement and some knots in your strand of faith! Grab your favorite break-time beverage and your strand of faith for our time together today.
I don’t consider myself to be politically savvy; on the other hand, I don’t like to think of myself as burying my head in the sand. However, and that’s a big however, how does one find the balance with so much of media focusing on all the name-slinging, reputation ruining, and character bashing going on in and outside of the race for president? Ugh, it’s almost frightening to think about and literally if I focus on all of it, it does make me want to bury my head in the sand while asking all these what-if questions.
My blog has never been nor will it ever be about politics; all I’ve got to say about it all is “Is this really the best we’ve got?” Listening to any of it, hearing about it, reading about it can definitely bring on a bit of anxiety, sending my thoughts to running amuck but a splash of perspective from His Love Letters, Lessons and Promises always brings me back.
I have just returned from a great memory-making, staying-in-the-moments kind of visit with my favorite little people, three of my grandkids. More times than I can count, my grandson was focused on the moments ahead, his childlike enthusiasm so pure, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and yet, he had a hard time staying in his now and exuded some anxiety about waiting. Often he would ask, “Nana, are you excited for…?” “Are you excited about…?” (It was always about our upcoming two-day trip to Schlitterbahn, the largest water park in the world.)
Each time I would handle it a bit different, but give the same message: “Sweetheart, I’m focused on our now; I’m excited to be creating memories with you now.” “Yes, I’m looking forward to….and I’m enjoying my now with you.”
I have ripped myself off of so many blessings by not staying in my moments and I am pretty sure my adamant responses sounded foreign to him at first. But when our trip to Schlitterbahn came and went, the meltdown that came afterwards was tragic and proved the necessity of staying in our moments. His words spoken in between sobs felt as though they were slicing my heart right in half: “You don’t understand; I’ve been counting down the days for this and looking forward to it all summer and now it’s gone and I have nothing to look forward to, nothing.”
His emotional outburst pulled me out of the front seat into the back with him so I could hold him in this moment and comfort him, assuring him that I did understand, all the while re-iterating the blessing of having had that time at the water park to create such beautiful memories.
When we lift an upcoming event so high that we fall down when it’s gone, we are not staying in our moments!
There is this child in each of us, though, that needs something to look forward to, something we know will be fun, exciting, and worth the wait. It’s almost like an addiction we must break free from in order to capture the moments in our now, to be free from the worries and/or the plans of tomorrow.
There really is only one thing we should be aiming for that will not take us away from our now but more than likely keep us more committed to the moments, and that is the thought of heaven! “Therefore do now worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
When I read that verse to my oldest grandson, his face lit up with a big smile, and his one-word response was “Yeah.”
Learning to embrace my now….so I can face my tomorrows
Evinda
No comments:
Post a Comment