Wednesday, March 5, 2008

The Hand of God


My sister LaRae started a journal of sorts to start recognizing the hand of God in her life. I committed to doing the same thing, and can't believe that a week has gone by without me doing a thing. Now you might think this means I don't really want to do the journal. This is something that I do want to do. I am finding it really hard to balance all the things in my life. (A common theme of my blog I am sure most of you have noticed.) Either I am busy with kids, husband, painting or house....and then I leave the rest to haphazard occasional moments. I know that I have neglected my Spiritual health immensely in the past few years, and that is not something I want to continue to do. I do want to set a good example to my children, and showing them a well balanced wife, mother and daughter of our Heavenly Father. I know that the hand of God is in my life, but I let all the noise drown him out. The fights between little ones, discouragement, money problems, physical problems, and just surviving day to day eat up all of my energy. Yet, somewhere deep in my soul, I know that I need this to not only survive, but to be a happy person. Everyone is busy, and using being busy is just an excuse. At this point in my life, I don't think I can commit to doing this everyday, but I know that I can do it at least three times a week. So next week I commit to myself that I will have something to share about how the hand of God affects me.

3 comments:

Janae said...

This is a great idea that can help us all. It is hard to be organized enough to find the time. It can be done though:)

LaRae said...

Dawnae - if this is something you really want to do, try this - in the morning, pray for the ability to recognize the hand of God in your life during that day. It can be a short & simple prayer offered at any time. Then just stop for a few seconds here & there throughout the day & maybe offer a similar prayer. You can pray while you're driving, making lunch for the girls, in the shower, even in the bathroom (though that may sound irreverent - but I don't think it really matters). Anyway - you will then notice little things. Make a mental note of those little things and then, at the end of the day write down even a sentence or two. It honestly does not have to take more than a couple of minutes - five tops, and it doesn't have to be a long, thought-provoking paragraph or journal entry. Just keep it simple, and don't let it end up being just "one more thing you have to get done in a day". I decided to just use the computer for my journal because I am a lot faster typer than writer. When I type it's easier for my fingers to keep up with my thoughts - though my fingers are definitely still slower.

Such a small and simple process really does help you focus on the positive and helps you to cope with "the fights between little ones, discouragement, money problems, physical problems, and surviving day to day." I am no expert since I have only done this for a week, but it has helped me so much to focus on how God touches my family (and all of our families) each day. The daily problems don't go away, the negative thoughts resulting from problems we are trying to conquer don't entirely go away, but it does make them less & you do feel better about things. It is worth it. Give it another try!

Anonymous said...

That's really good advice, LaRae.