Adrift.........

I love Christmas.  Truly, it is the most wonderful time of the year.  And now with kids I'm going to get to experience it on an entirely new level. 

With that said, I've been a bit adrift the past week or so.  I really don't have anything new to write which is why I've been a little flaky on my blog.  I feel a little muddled.  I know part of it is that the kids have been so sick and that just sucks all your time.  Plus I've been slow at work which leaves me feeling a bit directionless.  I can't even really motivate myself to use that time to knock off items from my ever growing to do list.  I finished decorating the house last night, the kids "helped" decorate the tree Sunday, and I even went to a cookie baking party over the weekend, but alas, I still have lackluster spirits. 

I think some of this out-of-sortsness comes from the fact that I have a vision for what I think God wants me to do but it's just me imposing my view OVER His.  I read two devotionals yesterday that basically said that we should stop trying to manipulate a situation to make it BE God's answer or timing.  Lysa Terkeurst wrote a whole article about it which said, "I know how to strategize to make my plan seem like a great plan...what if I use these skills and talents outside God’s will? To push past God’s timing, God’s direction, God’s plan to teach me stuff in the process...It’s great to strategize and have a plan. But it’s not great if that plan stretches me so I seek “more” rather than truly seeking God."  (Click here to read the whole post.)

SOOOO, I am turning it around today.  I'm going to rest in where I am now, without being lazy, and be thankful every moment for where God has placed me today!  Plus, I've seen too much around me this week to feel anything other than over the moon at how unfathomably fortunate I am this beautiful Christmas season.  I just saw pictures of a precious baby girl who was born six weeks early because her mother had an aneurysm and had to be rushed into brain surgery and the baby delivered.  Mom and baby girl survived and have a positive, miraculous, prognosis, but they're rehab-ing with her parents and are fundraising to pay medical bills.  My friend with young children is rushing between her very busy job and her father who is in the hospital - I can only imagine that she would kill for a little of my downtime.  I have friends trying to balance the joy of the holiday with the emptiness of this being their first Christmas without a loved one.

Today God has given me an amazing time and space to celebrate this miraculous season with my handsome husband and delightful kiddos, so I will move my focus to that and to Him and refuse to be adrift. 

Luke 1 - In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.  The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”