Living Expectantly

I have enjoyed the winter break with my kids. Have you? We have played with new toys, spent loads of time together as a family, stayed up late, watched movies and on and on and on. But, I am now getting kind of antsy! My patience is wearing thin, they are bored and so am I! We are a go, go, go kind of family and lately we have been doing a lot of quiet, inside games (it's really cold and snowy in NE) and activities. I feel like the days are dragging on and I am desperately searching my mind for a new activity that will not end with me barking orders or stopping a brother/brother or brother/sister battle. OK, enough with the whining, but here is my point...

I have been reading in the Bible lately about living expectantly. It sounds exciting, like something is just around the corner and I can almost taste it, see it, feel it. But, the reality is that my days seem to blur together. I repeat the same instructions to my kids, make the same meals and the same beds every day. What's coming just isn't getting my attention or motivating me for the day I am in.

So, as I ponder this I'm thinking that it is me,not God that is doing or thinking something wrong (I know I am brilliant, right?). I'm thinking that my idea of time and "right around the corner" is different than God's perspective on time. I think He wants me anticipating each moment, mundane to me or not, and living it fully for Him. I think he wants me to joyfully make beds and meals, purposefully instruct and discipline so that I am a living testimony of His presence in my life. I think He wants me to see how these everyday activities are really ways for my kids to see Him in action in my life. The "something new" that is "right around the corner" is my children's salvation, it's their new life. My days are not wasted or boring when I see them as eternal.

I am more motivated to engage with my kids, be creative, be consistent, be loving and stick to our standards and rules tomorrow because God is about to do something new in the lives of my children and I don't want to miss it. I want to be a part of it!

"For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland." Isaiah 43:19

"Give ear to me words, O Lord, consider my sighing. . . in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation." Psalm 5:1-3