Do you ever have those days you just want to run away? Where you just want to escape either the current situation you are in or life in general for a little while? You wonder if you could start a new life, would it be better? Would it be different? Or would you do it the same just with the knowledge you have now? But all you know is, you just want to quit right now and be done.
I’d be willing to bet we all have had those moments. Now take a moment like that, but already knowing you plan on moving away sometime in the future. Either soon, or even like in my situation, we plan on moving in about a year and a half, another state away. Now it's even more at the forefront of your thought. You think, well maybe we just pack up and leave now. What would be the difference right? We have enough funds available. Not as much as we are planning for, but it should work. Why not take the jump? Let’s do it!
It's moments like those we need to remind ourselves to take a deep breath and recenter. We built a plan for a reason. And unless an act of God changes that plan, a bad day should not push us to that decision.
Philippians 4:6-7 says “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”
Even as adults this is hard, we forget all the time. But sometimes God reminds us not directly, but indirectly. Case in point. The other day we were at my son, Timothy’s, hockey practice. It's hard to imagine, but my 4-year-old loves to skate and he has been in lessons for a few months. We just found out he can do what is called IP Hockey. Essentially there are no games, it’s just fundamental practice two times a week. So we are at practice and he comes skating off the ice halfway through, not like him, and says he’s done. So, we start asking him why, and he says he’s tired and his feet hurt. Well, he’s been skating for a few months, so we got past this getting used to skates and feet hurting thing. So we start troubleshooting his feet hurting. And he is just sobbing that he wants to quit. He’s done. He doesn’t want to play hockey anymore. We decided to go get the next size up in skates and coax him into letting him put them on his already hurting feet to see if it's any better. And when I say coax, I mean bribe. Come on, we all do it. And sometimes, it just has to be done. So we bribe our kid with his favorite treat, a Coke Slushie. (I will dive more into the whole caffeinating our kid later, but short story, like most ADHD people, it has an opposite effect than regular people.) So after bribery, and still a lot more coaxing and positive reinforcement, we get them on him and he goes back out on the ice and finishes practice. After practice, he came off the ice and we talk about how proud we are he finished practice and ask about his feet.
To wrap up the story, we have officially moved up to the next size of skates because well, 4-year-old kids grow, A LOT! This is now 2 sizes in 4 months. He’s gone up in shoes too.
Now, to a 4-year-old, this was not a moment of stopping and praying to God for patience. But, it was a lesson about not giving up, problem-solving, and not giving up. And it is in these moments, that God reminds us, reminds me, the same when it comes to tough days that just make me want to say, screw it, let's move now. And I remember to slow down, ask God to help me recenter myself, and refresh my thoughts. So I can grind out the hard days to get back to the normal ones, and stay on track with our plan so we can attain our goal the right way.
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