Peace in the midst

This will be mostly random thoughts.

God has been bringing my husband and I to the thought of simplicity over and over these last few weeks/months. It looks different for the two of us, his thoughts often more work oriented, mine more home life oriented, but those two worlds collide often.

I suppose, really, the pull towards the peace of simplicity is something that has been there since we had our first daugther, almost 4 years ago. That isn't so long ago that I don't remember the chaos, the stress, and the sense of panic I always had while working, or going to school. Being a wife, mother and homemaker is not easy, harder then anything I ever imagined. Yet, it has a sense of peace that I can't quite put into words.

Domestic Felicity, an amazingly encouraging blog, caught a bit of what I feel in this post:

Ladies, we don't have to be overwhelmingly busy in order to be hardworking wives and mothers. On the contrary, I believe it would be counter-productive. Again, if we opted to stay home in order (among other things) not to be frazzled and to have peace of mind, which is so much more conductive to happy and smoothly flowing family life, and yet we frantically attempt to erase every trace of relaxation from our days, what have we accomplished?

A couple of generations ago, the modern pace of life which has now become the norm would have been seen for what it really is – crazy. Restless. Unhealthy for families, for little children. We should be proud, not ashamed, of keeping an island of peacefulness in the midst of the world's rush, rush, rushing to nowhere. It's important to set a gentle, quiet rhythm to our days, to take a look at what already is on our plate – and if you have at least one little child at home, I'm estimating that in most cases it's more than enough – before we accept additional responsibilities, try to achieve perfection, or in any way turn our days into a hazy blur of ticking things off a to-do list.

The fact is, a day at home with your little one(s) will most likely be full and busy whether or not you try to make it so. We don't have to try and cram more into our day in order to be continuously occupied. It usually happens on its own!

Once, my husband said he would rather have dinner late then a wife in a puddle of tears when he gets home. No doubt! But that freed me a little to look at what was happening every day, to relax a little, and to desire to schedule my days better so maybe he could have both dinner on time and a peaceful wife. God has done an amazing work, at least internally (hope it shows outside!) for me in this area.

I have learned that although I am fairly slow in getting things done, that if I feel overwhelmed, trying to do more and do it faster doesn't always work. When I feel a rather stressful day start to take a hold, I find myself pulling back. Mentally, I think "one thing at a time." Spiritually, I have to ask for God to help me order my thoughts, my day, my emotions.

Being a mom is relaxing. Not the relaxing I did before being a mom, sleeping in for hours, not cleaning the house when I didn't want to, reading a book in one day, for example. But slowing down to watch sisters play together, taking time to fold laundry, curling up with a book and a warm little girl, even pondering the millions of mistakes I made and asking God to help me start over the next day while I finish the dishes at night.

I'm on God's time. That can be difficult, for sure. But when I feel overwhelmed, I can turn to Him and He will show me how to simplify, to relax, to regroup and find that peace again. May I grow quickly in this area so I can express the growing understanding of His peace to my girls.