There are times when you come across a blog and you think that this blogger has read your mind. Not only have they read your mind but, they have written down what you have been thinking about better than you could have expressed it yourself in writing. Ostriches Look Funny is that kind of blog for me. I love her writing style, her photo choices, and her love for God.
The posts on Ostriches Look Funny are funny challenge me to a better mom, make me laugh and or cry, and lead me to pray all at the same time.
Below you will find Ostriches Look Funny’s take on the phrase Pause Life for Moment. If you like it and I know you will, please stop by her blog and read some of the other wonderful posts she has created.
It was a day when the sun and the wind get together to blow kisses on your arms and everything feels perfect and looks green. I herd my children down a dirt path, away from church and bible study, away from the bathroom that my pregnant body suddenly needs, and I march forward with a secret goal to get home and eat a peanut butter sandwich before one o’ clock.
I pause and glance behind my shoulder, and my ducklings are not following me. They both had stopped, squatted down like children do, staring intently at foxtails and nondescript wildflowers.
“Look! MOM! Look! Look at this purple flower! Can I take this stick to the car?” my three-year-old queries.
My bladder grumbles and I sigh and say, “No! I don’t have time for this.”
And as soon as the words leave my mouth, my heart asks the question, “If you don’t have time for THIS, what do you have time FOR?”
If I don’t have time for stopping to look at the green and whispery foxtails, if I don’t have time for examining minuscule purple wildflowers, if I don’t have time to watch my little boy’s golden baby curls wave in the breeze, what am I here for?
Time is a gift, and no one is guaranteed a particular amount.
It is a gift, given for a brief period and then, vapor-like, it runs out. My sons are growing by inches and miles, my wrinkles are multiplying in the night. Right now I am in a beautiful season, my children are small and Spring has made everything pink and green. But, they haven’t found a cure for cancer or car accidents. People die, and children suffer, and waves wash over entire cities. I don’t know what will happen tomorrow. I am only guaranteed this breath, this beat, this miraculous moment.
What is my moment for then?
The answer is different each time I ask. There is a time for everything; a time to cry and a time to laugh, a time to look at wildflowers in the sun, and a time to rush home to use the bathroom…but I don’t have time to be impatient with my children. I don’t t have time to be selfish, or quarrelsome, or bitter, or faithless. The great gift is not for such things, such things waste a life.
It’s hard for me to live in the moment when my house is a bomb, which it usually is. I feel tinges of guilt when I start a project only to lay it down for twenty minutes to address a paper airplane emergency. There have been days where the dishwasher has remained halfway unloaded for four hours straight (I think maybe my son has Dishwasher Radar, and if he sees me walking towards it he goes into Mommy Emergency Hug and Kisses Me Mode…but that’s just a conspiracy theory) and it makes me a little crazy. The point is, in order for me to savor each minute, some things aren’t finished when I want them to be.
I can look at my house and spiral into a depression over the lint and dust and crumbs that have taken over while I was on a walk with my kids…or I can remember that it is good to rest from my works. Following Jesus is about freedom, even freedom from housework. As crazy as it makes me, I give my half washed dishes to God and ask him to sort out my time for me.
“There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God, for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from His.” – Hebrews 4:9-10
I pause my life by changing my perspective, by savoring the moment, by noticing the foxtails and the baby curls. I pause my life by remembering the Lord is the one who makes me holy; not my broom, and not my mop, and not my schedule. So, rest friends. God will take care of you.
Beautiful post! And I feel your dishwasher pain. If I so much as open mine when the twins are awake, an invisible alarm goes off calling them to run over and climb inside.
How absolutely beautiful! She’s so right. We are often too concerned with what’s not in the moment than what’s in it, and it prevents us from enjoying life’s immediate blessings. 🙁
Great guest post and I do love her blog!
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How I love this post!
Absolutely beautiful!
I can totally relate to her thoughts.
I so love the title of her blog, too.
Stopping by from SITS.
Happy Tuesday!
Betty
She is great! I am definitely going to go over to her blog. Thank you for introducing us to such a wonderful writer.
Beautiful post! Definitely makes me want to relax and enjoy the little moments a little more! I try to do that every once in a while with my boys especially since I don’t know if I’ll have another baby! 🙂 But I could definitely stand to do it MORE – that’s for sure! I’m off to check out her blog!
I love Ostriches Look Funny!
Great post, JoAnn, and thanks for the reminder. I have been feeling the same way lately. 🙂
A lovely post, and written so beautifully:)
What a wonderful post, and so well written too!
Yep,yep yep.You got it, girl. love you oxo
what a beautiful post…
thanks for sharing, heading over to visit her blog now!!!!
(and we have the same thing here when it is time to unload the dishwasher!)
You’re right; JoAnn does read our minds and then takes our thoughts and makes them into sentences and creates beauty. She makes me think, and she makes me laugh–especially when she says out loud what we’re all thinking–sometimes a mom does just need time to rush home to the bathroom. Thanks for hosting her here. I’ll have to stop by to visit again. Blessings.
I haven’t been able to figure out, yet, where in my house you have tucked your nanny and spy cams. Or why you love me enough to write this just for me. I am glowing in your bright sunshiny love. Thank you for this post.
wow. I had no idea I was so psychic…or maybe we are all just in this together with our dishwashers and laundry monsters. Thanks for having me here, I feel so welcomed.
Oh, thanks for sharing this! There’s so much wisdom here, and I need to linger over it to absorb, once again, the message of what is truly important in life.
It’s amazing when your heart talks to you, isn’t it?
Just the name of the blog made me love her – thanks for the introduction.
This is so true and will also check out that other blog you mentioned. Thanks for sharing. Why is it though that kids always need answers to their trivial questions when our bladders are full LOL.
Wow! So very powerful and inspiring. We can’t always assume there will be plenty of time ahead. Thanks for sharing this post – it has redirected me today! 🙂
perfect, friend… i needed it.
xo
Love it! This is so wonderful, Joann. I love reading your thoughts and the clever way you you show us who you are and how you describe the process of God transforming you into a godly and gracious mother. I know that is the kind of mother you had (and still have) and a great father as well. I still see him serving in Awana every Wednesday night at church and it is amazing the love and service your parents still gives to the children after all these years. You are equipped for parenting!
I love JoAnn — what a treat to read her here today!
For the record, now when I open the dishwasher my kids run for the hills, because they know I’m going to ask them to help me!
This is lovely…and quite true!
very well written and so true! thanks! =)
This is simply wonderful. I catch myself sighing occasionally when one of my children has asked for my attention.
I’m busy, I think. Can’t they see I’m in the middle of something?
But they are, too. They are in the middle of life. And when they want to share it with me, I should stop. And not sigh.
Thanks for the reminder. Very much.
What a beautiful post. Thank you for letting Blog Frog readers know about it.
Thank you for this — time *is* a gift and my house is a bomb — so this was a much needed read.
I feel for her and why must we feel guilty for our bladder’s timing? Our children are indeed precious as is everything God creates – oh for a way to do it all, see it all, be all…
I love it when I find a blog and just totally click with the person ho writes it.
This was a great post! It really reminds me that I need to spend more time with my boys!
Lovely JoAnn!! Simply lovely.
I adore JoAnn.
and this post… my favourite.
joann, you absolutely nailed it. i’m not sure how you pierce my heart and tickle my funny bone all in one fell swoop…you’re a talented one for sure.
BEAUTIFUL! LOVE this Joanne. I need to read this everyday at 4pm!