My Peaceful Place

I discovered something today. . .

that I can have a peaceful place in the midst of noise and chaos. I loved escaping to this wonderful place this morning. You may want to try it.

Have you ever had a hectic morning? I did today.

I was trying so hard to be calm and happy and kind this morning. And it was going pretty well actually. . . and then we started our first day of school.

This homeschool routine of ours should not be hectic, except that I have a toddler and an infant who like to be in the center of things, and boisterous at that. So, to help calm things down, I decided that I was going to start "blanket time" with Luke while the big kids worked on their writing. He was beside himself excited!

We were going to build with Legos on the blanket for fifteen minutes, so off we went to find a blanket and pull the Lego tub out of the playroom and set up shop near the kitchen table. {I wanted to be close by to help the others if they had any questions.}

Well, here comes Chase! He immediately stands in the middle of us and begins to claim all of Luke's Lego animals which caused great concern and stress, of course. In the midst of this commotion, Ashton finishes his work (it took us a while to get our blanket) and asks to join us. Within seconds, he's making very loud noises with the Legos and flying them all around. Then Amberlyn was stumped with a question about her lesson. I call her to me so I can look over it with her without leaving the blanket. Ten minutes later, I realize our blanket time got lost in the fray and commotion of what everyone else needed.

{Thankfully, I'm a quick student. Tomorrow, Chase gets playpen time with his own toys while Luke and I have blanket time--alone.}

Our minister said yesterday, busyness brings strife and your best requires rest (I was taking notes, David!). This really struck home with me.

Busyness brings strife--my best requires rest. . . boy, that's true!

I knew that I didn't want to snap at my kids or get angry, so as I was in the middle of grading Joshua's lesson-- and after the fifteenth chaotic interruption when I could feel my blood beginning to boil-- I just bowed my head slightly and closed my eyes and focused for a minute on the Lord's peace.

I meditated on His wonderful goodness and breathed deeply of His calm for just a minute or so, but it was more than enough to center me again and restore my peace.

Try it sometime. You may just rediscover your peaceful place, too.

Back Online. . . Testimony of a Computer Fast

We were offline for nearly six weeks and I went through technology withdrawal.

Our computer's hard drive almost crashed and we couldn't even get to the desktop, but we were able to get it in for repair just in time to save all the baby pictures that hadn't been backed up. I know, I know. . .

Anyway, I give the Lord the credit for saving our memories--we had no idea anything was even wrong until it was almost too late. I don't even want to think about how bad that would have been to have lost those precious pictures. So, the moral of this story is two-fold: back up all your irreplacable data and God is so faithful to watch over us even when we don't realize we are in immediate danger. He is so good to us!

The first week or so of my computer fast was the toughest. I found myself walking over to the computer screen constantly to see if there was an email that couldn't wait to be answered. I discovered that I have used my computer a lot to escape. You know, technology can be such a wonderful tool, but it can also really steal a lot of time and energy if allowed to.

But as time wore on, I found that I thought and prayed a lot more. I began to relax. I became more available to my children and to my sweetheart. I started projects around the house that had been in sore neglect.

So, now that my time of fasting is over, I don't want to go back to where I was. I like the new me. I want the computer to serve me, not the other way around. How do I do this?

I am baby stepping by setting a time boundary for myself. I am going to limit myself during the week to two hours on the computer a day. That should be more than enough time to answer emails, balance my checkbook (I love that online feature!), and do a little business work. When my kids take their quiet time around 1 pm, I will take my computer time. And when they get up, I get up.

If you think of me, please pray for me to stay committed to this new discipline. It is so hard to bring our flesh into line sometimes, and I covet your prayers. Hey, maybe the next time you step away from your computer to bake cookies with your kids or kiss your man, you can pray for those of us who still need some computer discipline. :-)