I would share the same words I shared with a young mother whose lament sounded the same as mine when I was in the business of raising my six wonderful kids. I remember well having some of the same feelings she expressed–overwhelmed, overburdened, wondering if having made the decision to be a “stay at home Mommy” might have been a wrong decision after all!
I told her that there was no older woman for me who could help get me back on track, so God did it for me.
I was cleaning out the little boy’s room, turning yucky socks right side out, prying hot chocolate cups off the dresser, while scrunching potato chips underfoot. I was fuming, and–feeling defeated. When, from the Sweetest Presence, I heard a Voice so lovingly say, “What if this were your last day to do this for them…what would you do differently?”
And it brought me to my knees! I sobbed, and put that smelly sock right on my heart, and wept out my request for forgiveness for having had such resistant, selfish thoughts. This totally changed how I looked at things from then on. I came to honor the value of the old admonition that said we should “live each day as though it were our last.”
I found myself being nice to my children, even though there wasn’t another person around. Everything they had to share became so much more important to me. And, when you get right down to it, we really DO live only that one day at a time, anyhow.
We are continually being suspended between two robbers; one is the “regrets of the past” and the other is “fear of the future.” And there we are–wedged in between, in that place called today..the NOW! Because the next day is in the future, and yesterday is a memory from the past anyhow…but in the moment of time we call “today” we can all learn to live that day–as though it were the last!
I would also encourage people to put some “Feel Better Boxes” together for those who are in anguish or grief. When people are stressed because of the magnitude of sorrow they carry, they can’t really focus on much more than a sentence or two at one time. Writing short sentences on small slips of paper, putting them in a pretty box and suggesting they carry one with them each day will help them to reach for the next “better” thought until they feel whole again.
Those sentences don’t have to be heavy–just restful, like:
“There is a bigger picture. Everything is as it is supposed to be. Stop for a moment and just feel the Presence…breathe deeply.”
Or: “You always have a choice as to how you want to live your life. You can choose to live from fear, or you can choose to live from Love. The choice is yours. Which one makes you feel better?”
That wonderful Something that lives within you will help you build your own sentences once you set out to do this. It just feels so good…and I am all about “feeling good.”
…Yes, this is what I would share, if I had only those 500 words.
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