Maintaining My Sanity

There are a few questions that I have heard more than once in the last couple of weeks: How do you maintain your sanity and how do you manage to have a quiet time in the midst of everyday life? These are very good questions and I have to admit that on some days I don't do either very well. After all, no body's perfect. Right?

To answer the first question though, in order to maintain my sanity one must imply that I had my sanity to begin with. That depends on how one would define sanity. If sanity means I can remember my own name; I'm sane. If it means I can remember my child's name while he's standing right in front of me; Not so much. If it means I can teach simple addition and subtraction facts; I'm good. If it means I can remember that the Pythagorean theorem is that the square drawn on the hypotenuse of a right triangle has the same area as the sum of the square drawn on the other two sides; . . . huh? If being sane means I can tie my own shoes; I am. If it means I can find shoes for all my kids; Nope. So you see my dilemma? In my world I feel completely sane. If you were to step into my world for a moment, you might not have the same answer.

I do understand the heart of that question and my answer to that is: I do one thing at a time. OK maybe two or three things . . . OK sometimes four things, but never five. I never do five things at once. . . .I guess I don't have a great answer to that question. Let's move on to the next one. I do have an answer for that.

How do I have a "quiet time" everyday? I don't. Before you judge me too harshly, let me explain. I learned sometime back when I had lots of little ones and I was feeling like the great "need-meeter" that if I was going to survive, I needed to maintain my relationship with Christ. I tried to get up early. After all this is what everyone was teaching; that if you didn't start the day with a minimum of three hours of praying and worship and reading the Word and more praying and worship and meditation, that there was NO possibility for growth. OK, that's not really what they taught, but it might of well have been. In my little world at home, I could not make that work. No matter how early I got up, even if my feet didn't hit the floor, at least one of my children would wake up. And then inevitably, I would start the day resenting the fact that my children were "hindering" my walk with the Lord and THAT is never good. So I changed my game plan. I made sure that I was always involved in a bible study somewhere. Then at least I was getting something from The Word at least once or twice a week. (church counts, too.) This also motivated me to get my study done. So I would try to do my study during nap time or during any other quiet moment the day would offer me. I figured out that if I left my bible and my study open on the kitchen counter, I could do one question at a time and eventually get the whole study done in time for the meeting. This led me to have an open dialogue with God throughout the day. I am constantly shooting up "arrow" prayers. Like "Lord give me wisdom.", "Help me to be the mommy they need me to be right now"," Lord, please help me not to eat that cookie when there is an apple that would taste just as good and be better for me". Really! I really pray like that and believe that my relationship with Christ is closer now than it has ever been.

As my life has evolved from having many little ones to having bigs and littles, I am finding more of those quiet moments. I don't have nap time anymore, but I do have dentist appointments and piano lessons. I take my life journal and bible study everywhere with me so I can take advantage of those moments.

We have a garden out in the "way back" . Our soil is very sandy. If we turn the water on full blast and leave it on for an hour, the water will go straight through and will be less effective in keeping the plants hydrated than if we turned it on to just a drip and left it on all day. My encouragement to all of you mommies who feel like you are being sucked dry. Turn on the drip system. Let God's word saturate every part of your life. Open your bible and just read a little bit at a time. It will soak in to the very deepest parts of your heart. Don't let Satan convince you that if you can't meet God first thing in the morning with an hour of quiet that you might as well not even try. That's a lie! God knows exactly where you are. He knows how busy you are and how tired you are and how burdened you are and He wants to bear those burdens for you. But there is no way for Him to help if you don't go to Him with those things. It might seem silly to talk to God about what you are eating, but I have had conversations with my close friends about what I eat and wear and do. God wants to be that close to you. Give him the chance!

Be blessed!
Trina