As soon as you truly abandon yourself in the Lord, you will know how to be content with whatever happens. You will not lose your peace if your undertakings do not turn out the way you hoped, even if you have put everything into them, and used all the means necessary. For they will have turned out the way God wants them to. Saint Escriva', Furrow, 860
When I first read the above passage I knew it had been written for me. I need to write it out poster sized and hang it on my kitchen wall! I am a recovering control freak, and despite all my best laid plans, schedules and ideas, and despite the fact that I KNOW how each day should go, somehow.......... Well, I couldn't understand it! How come my carefully, prayerfully planned days are filled with a) some kid being a crank and not cooperating (there's always someone!); b) some kind of crises; or c) some sort of happy, but necessary distraction? Why does this seem to happen, daily even? How am I going to get anything done? Especially when even the most mundane sorts of tasks cry for my attention!?
It has taken me a while, but I am working on adjusting my expectations and my attitude. My schedule and my plans are one thing, a good and necessary part of my life, but it's not the thing, it's only my thing.
The thing is what is in front of me right now. See, my thing might be a plan to get my phone calls made during a certain time of the day or to get the baby down for a nap, but the thing may be to change a really bad diaper or to comfort a neighbor who shows up at the door. My thing may be to work on the laundry because it desperately needs attention, but the thing may be to spend a little extra time with my six year old who's feeling a little picked on and left out. My thing may be to get in a little time on the computer or make a phone call, but the thing may be to give my husband some attention and conversation. I am working on it, working on embracing the thing, the thing that God has given me to attend to at any given time, and choosing to do His work, my distraction, with joy.
Peace, Hope
