October 1, 2021 – Friday
It has been a whirlwind since the start of school. Starting school with COVID left me behind in the race I feel I am in. I am trying to catch up. Sometimes it feels as if I am getting closer to what I am trying reach, but to no avail. Each day presents its own unique blessings and opportunities that when embraced leave my attempts to catch up dangling. If I allow myself to spend all my time catching up… I miss what today holds, and will spend the rest of my life in a perceived race. Maybe I won’t catch up. Maybe I am not intended to. Maybe the race I am in is not a race at all. Maybe, just maybe, I am meant to focus on today and let tomorrow take care of itself (Matt 6:34). Perhaps embracing today is enough. Today it will have to be, because my Mama arrived from Texas yesterday and it is her 75th birthday. Today – I choose to focus on today! And perhaps… I won’t try to catch up tomorrow either.
Refuse to worry about tomorrow, but deal with each challenge that comes your way, one day at a time. Tomorrow will take care of itself.” (Matt 6:34, TPT)
Yesterday, I woke up before the sun to make a birthday cake for my Mom’s visit, Autumn Spice Cake with cream cheese frosting. She told my daughter nut spice cake was one of her favorites growing up. I don’t have her mother’s recipe, so I had to improvise. She seems to talk about her childhood with increasing nostalgia these days. Time has a way of aligning what is important to us.
The smell of fall infused the house with notes of ginger, allspice, cinnamon and nutmeg. Despite the flurry to get out the door for the days events, the smells invited to slow down. As we sat down for breakfast, I put our to-do list on pause and opened our bible to the place where our owl book mark rested. This time honored discipline has become the very fabric of our day.
Somehow it is always the last five minutes of getting out the door that turn into a mad scramble to find shoes, water bottles, and the specifics of that particular outing. As we raced… ugh… there we are, racing again. Anyway, we did indeed race into the van for gymnastics. Once in my seat, I took a deep breath, smiled, and offer to turn on book five of the Penderwick series. My proposal was greeted with enthusiastic cheers. A silence only a good book can create, fills the van, only to be interrupted with roars of laughter as the infamous Mrs. Tifton returns to the story. The drive is too short. As we pull into the parking lot of our destination, the children sigh with a mutual disappointment that we are already there.
After a flurry of errands that morning, we return home to put the icing on the cake and tidy up. My to-do list is still dangling – it includes the day’s school lessons. The question is whether I will dangle from it, holding on for dear life, or if I will choose to let go. Today I am choosing to let go. School isn’t going to get done today! The peace and joy that I bring into my home is far more important than any arithmetic lesson. Hanging on tight to my list holds a perceived security. The reality is that security is found only in trusting God with his timing, daily interruptions and all other details of our life. When we discover how to let go… he catches us.
I woke up too early this morning (4:30am) to wrap birthday gifts, put up the birthday banner, and place the finishing touches on the day. It is what she did countless times when I was growing up. I never saw the behind the scenes work – just the peace and joy that her love brought to our home. Now it is my turn. I accept the baton with humility and gratitude, thankful to be given this great opportunity.
I have a decision to make this morning. I know that the hours of the day are limited. How I am going to fill those hours is a choice I get to make. What is important? My dangling to-do list or the people I get to spend this day with? The answer is obvious. Maybe I won’t get to my to-do list today either. Maybe that is right where God wants me. I not only have to choose to let the list dangle, but also refuse to worry about its contents. Being present is a gift few get to open. It requires us to set down all that we are carrying and simply receive the gift we are being handed today.
This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it!