Not social distancing... family togetherness
Today I woke to a cell phone with a dead battery. Since we are on visiting the family farm I have been carrying my phone as a camera trying to capture every moment of childhood joy. But let’s be honest, while I have been using my phone to capture pictures, I have also been “socializing” during our mandated social distancing. And this extra social media socializing has distracted me from actually enjoying my children and their enthusiasm over God’s creation!
So here is what I have learned from a dead battery, lots of rain, and my children:
If I stopped trying to capture the moment and simply lived the moment, I would be able to truly enjoy my family time. I would see the simple joys of my kid’s childhood that are passing by too quickly.
When I am multitasking with my kids and trying to do everything at the same time I am dog nothing well. How do I know this? Because when my kids ask for my attention and I feel frustrated because they are interrupting me……then I am not enjoying them. If I am not enjoying them then I am not parenting them well. (now don’t take this to an extreme I am NOT saying I need to enjoy my kids always. . . but please follow my thought) When am not enjoying my kids, I am feeling interrupted by them I tend to see their actions as disobedience and not growth opportunities.
While I can’t always be 100% kid focused cause we all still have work to do, whether it may be laundry, cooking cleaning, writing, office work from home, or online schooling. . . we have life that must be lived in the midst of this pandemic and in someways it is harder to focused on one thing at time now more than ever. But I have found if I give my children a few moments of fully focused no interruption playtime they are more secure and less needy throughout the rest of the day.
You see when I don’t feel interrupted or preoccupied the teachable moments remain teachable and are not issues of discipline issues. My kids are free to grow and explore and learn and to fall in love with who Jesus made them to be in the world he created. And I am less stressed and more at peace.Today as my kids were splashing and swimming in the puddles the shouted: “Thank you Jesus for the rain!” I laughed out loud at their beautifully sweet expression of joy. I guess my laughter startled my children, because they stopped looked at me and said: “Mommy, God made the rain so we could swim in puddles.”
I sat there for the longest time thinking about all that is going on in the world right now, and how much this “rain” is causing us to loose focus on who is truly in charge. We have forgotten who has this world in his hand and who is going to be the one to bring about the rainbow. So in the midst of the rain I am looking for puddles to jump in.
So What?
Let your cell phone battery die and live the moment, your mind will capture all the pictures needed
Keep teachable moments are teachable moments and not discipline.
God is in control. . . enjoy the puddles for our enjoyment.
Let’s remember that this time of social distancing and sheltering in place is really about coming back to being a family, to resting in the Lord, and to knowing it is okay to laugh and giggle and play in the puddles and not be productive every day.