"Staying productive is good. But busyness robs us of the gift right in front of us. It distracts us from the most important things in life and often steals our joy. . . Learn to pay attention to what matters most and find the freedom that comes from focusing." ~ Jeff Goins
In case you all are wondering, I didn't give up on the challenge. I stuck with it, but haven't been the best at keeping up on writing how it went. The holiday weekend and my son's birthday took center stage this weekend, and that was important and good. I was glad to celebrate this little man of mine who is now 7 years old! Time really does go so quickly.
Back to being focused and Slow Down Challenge, Day 3. The challenge was to pick one task and accomplish it without letting other things come in and distract you from what is important in the moment. I decided to not choose a particular work task or chore, but instead wanted to spend the evening at home loving on my kids. It is so easy to get home from working a full day and start checking off things that need to be done around the house: dinner, homework, chores, baths, get ready for tomorrow and on and on.
In doing this challenge however, I am reminded that these moments right now need to be viewed as the only moments that matter. My kids will only be little for so long and putting aside all of the distractions - the to do lists, the cell phone, the TV, the mentally going through what needs to be done tomorrow, etc. - and truly focusing on quality time with them is life giving for both them and myself.
So I put my phone in the other room, put my chore list aside for the evening and we kept the TV off. We ate dinner together, did our devotion and played Legos. Legos covered the family room floor, and I am not exaggerating, they were EVERYWHERE. One Christmas, the little man probably received 10 different sets, so we have Legos coming out of our ears. We built cars and a tower and a house boat. It was a truly wonderful evening. Looking up every few minutes and being greeted with an ear to ear grin just about melted my heart.
I know I'm not a perfect parent and I often don't get it right, but in the end if my little ones know every single day how dearly they are loved by me and even more so by their Heavenly Father, than I've done something right.
This!
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