You just have to love it when they cancel school before even one flake of snow falls, don't you?! Not that I'm complaining - we're very much enjoying the slow day around here, and I'm sure pulling off an early release after all the kids are at school and the weather turns bad is a major pain. I just think it will be really funny if the "big storm" misses us completely. :-)
Our "sorta" snow day got me thinking about how much "sorta" things rub me the wrong way. I'm a very black-and-white person...I hate the gray areas. Here are just some of the "sorta" things that bug me:
~"sorta" finishing a project. Running out of time to finish what I'm doing, or being interrupted in the middle of what I'm doing, can drive me near crazy. (My husband would say it's a short drive.)
~being "sorta" on time
~"sorta" knowing where I'm going
~"sorta" having a plan
~"sorta" responsible people
~"sorta" organized spaces
~things that "sorta" match
~"sorta" knowing the right answer
~being "sorta" good at something
If you knew how incomplete that list is for me, you would laugh your head off. Those are just some of the little petty things in life that I like to have in a row. There are all sorts of important ones that I don't feel like dumping on my blog. I like my life to fit into nice, neat spaces; all the loose ends tied up. I think it boils down to the fact that I hate to fail. Very badly. And having "sorta" in the equation at all just increases the chances that things aren't going to go the way I expect. And if things don't go the way I expect, then I can't control the outcome. And if I can't control the outcome...hoo boy, I really might...(gulp)...FAIL.
The bad news is, I don't think people tend to outgrow this neurotic tendency. Even worse, it's already a well-documented fact that I am a big failure on many fronts. It shouldn't surprise me any. The good news is, every single one of those failures was wiped out by the blood of Jesus Christ and replaced with His perfection. WHEW!! I like perfect!
Hmm...not sure how a "sorta" snow day got me all the way down that line of thinking. I'm guessing there's no rational explanation for how my brain works! Anyway, I hope you're enjoying your "sorta" snow day! :-)
**P.S. I no sooner hit the "publish post" button on this thing when it started to snow. Ha!! God's funny!**
6 comments:
Sounds to me like ya sorta, aughta lighten up and learn to enjoy the unpredictable and the uncontrollable things in life, since they sorta comprise the majority of our existence on this planet.
Just a thought!
Abba, how you doin?
I kinda, sorta, almost always seem to live in the world of the mostly unpredictable. Certainly that has been the case living with my youngest daughters. And then there is the economy. Having young children in your life is said to be something like having a bowling alley installed in your brain. Having teens like mine is like having a live firing range installed in your heart, your heart also being the target.
That being said there are few substitutes for being organized when it comes to business and the business of running the home. Tools are my greatest challenge. How many projects did I put off because I was too lazy to clean up my work bench. That I am continually faced with a messy work bench says something about the way my mind works, or for that matter doesn't work. I admire those who can "keep it straight." Yet, if being ridgid in life is the price of being organized...I'll pass. It need not be. Yet, I can no more choose to be organized than others can choose to be like me. We are all different. In the debate of nurture verses nature...I think nature has it won. There certainly can be freedom found in organization.
There is this wonderful word, serendipity; The faculty of happening upon or making fortunate discoveries when not in search of them. And then there is the word whimsical; Oddly constitued; fantastic; quaint.
I am facinated by our Lord's love and tenderness towards children. Are they not fantastically and oddly constituted. Don't they always come upon the wonders of God's creation and are so delighted when they discover something awesome that they weren't even looking for. I love kids, but I love adults as much. So too does the Lord love us when we are old...just the same as He did when we were but whimsical babes. Why should we grow un-whimsical? Why as adults do we always try hard to discover on our own every fantastic thing?
Christ didn't come to get us organized.
As disorganized as I can be, as scatter brained as some of my children are, I have to confess that one of the most meaningful passages in Scripture reminds me that "it is by My grace, Brucie, that you are saved. I am giving this to you with no expectation of payment. Just, regardless of how you think or how you feel, trust in Me, have faith in Me. I am giving this gift of eternal relationship with Me to you free becauses I love how fantastically I made you, how whimsical I was when I did create you. I, your Lord and Savior, like being with you. This gift is free so that you can not embrace yourself eternally, just Me. You can not be better than others, as they too are Mine. Free this gift is so that you can embrace Me forever." As inept as I have been and as often as I have been in life, I take comfort in that admonishment for I am so unworthy in and of myself. I can also be found to brag when I have absolutely nothing to brag about.
Delilah, you have it right when it comes to being cleansed by the blood of The Lamb. Irritation, being bugged, experiencing anger when things don't go as expected...those things are part of coping with this broken world of ours. I think it is in Colossians where we are reminded, "in whatsoever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men." Delilah, you work real hard at doing life "as unto the Lord." I think you want your offering to be as perfect as you can conceive it could possibly be. I think this is good. I am convinced that Jesus accepts and loves your offerings everyday. The danger is in taking pride in this effort. For me the danger is in seeing worthlessness in myself, that my offering will not be regarded.
You are so beautiful, your mind is so beautiful, your children are so beautiful. You were whimsically and fantasitcally made. You are your children. You are God's child. Wonderful things come in odd sizes and unexpected times. That you laugh at yourself...I think you are not so crazy. Just don't grow so old and stiff that you are unwilling to open surprise packages. They are the best kind. Unfortunately for the binary types life never comes to them in such basic ways. So many colors, so many temperatures, so many textures and oh so much love.
Delilah, you are sorta AMAZING don't cha know.
Thanks, Bruce. :-)
Great post, Dee. And I just had to laugh because almost all the things on your "sorta" list are true of me. (I don't stand for "sorta" knowing the right answer -- that's an oxymoron to me; I either know it or I don't.)
But I have the same fear of failure... Thankfully, I have the same gift of grace that covers it all, too!
I giggled when I read this after what I wrote about today... I sorta get this ;) LOL
Our school has taken sooooo many snow days....I think that we'll have to "make them up" at the end of the year. :(
Bummer
Post a Comment