Living in the "right now"

I know I talk about waiting a whole lot here.  I think it's because I've found during seasons of waiting that I am the most "unproductive."  Honestly waiting can sometimes paralyze me from living the life that I should be living right now, in this moment.  Obviously I've talked about waiting for a baby a  lot, but now it's waiting for our little adopted kiddo.  And for a while it was waiting to move when we were in Chicago- I found it hard to really dive into life there after we got married because I thought for sure we would be moving in a couple years (and then 2 years turned into 5 years...).  You see sometimes I don't even know what I'm waiting for, but because I feel like I am waiting for something, I withhold and don't fully ask God daily how He can use me where I am because I'm so consumed with what's next.

And at the very best time, I read a devo the other day on girltalkhome.com  (it's a blog run by a pastor's wife and her daughters.)  And they had some wonderful things to share relating to this:

"The Christian may walk in darkness, but he need never wander.  Ecclesiastes says, "this is the way, walk in it, be joyful, do good."  Don't live life waiting for something else, do good now.  Remain faithful in what you do know.   Ask, what is the duty of my present circumstances?  Maybe we aren't where we want to be and there is nothing sinful about wanting our present circumstances to change, but we need to seek how we can serve Christ where we are."

And that is the secret of contentment in waiting.  It's the key that stops us from becoming paralyzed - when we do good right where we are, we wake up and discover we are actually living.

And they made a list of potential things we could be doing while we are waiting: showing hospitality, praying, loving kids, loving husband, serving the afflicted, carpooling the neighbors, hosting a family after church, driving a friend to a doctor, washing the sheets, pulling weeds, greeting husband with a smile and kiss. 

Some seem simple, yes.  Yet during seasons of waiting for me, these small, God honoring and servant tasks go out the window because I can become so focused on me and what God is going to do next in my life, instead of making my life about God, and how I can serve and honor Him right now.

I know this sounds small, but for someone like me who can get stuck in a season of waiting it was such a wonderful reminder that God uses us in all seasons of our life.  And really, as I've noticed in my short 29 years of living on this life, we always seem to be waiting for something :)

As always, what's a blog post without pictures?  Here's some from when we took Jake to his first hockey game the other week!

This was our friends little guy, his dad played on the team, hence the jersey :)

high fiving the players after their half time break :)

Happy Friday, Friends!

Here are some fun things around the web I've been reading :)

This has been floating around Facebook.  We don't have cable and watched their show for the first time this past weekend when we were in Ohio for Easter and I really wanted to be friends with this couple, and then I watched this video.  And decided we are destined to be friends.  Not just so I can use her awesome decorating abilities. Such an inspiring story.

Our most recent adoption update: we are done with the home study!  Hooray!

I've talked about Lindsay before on this blog and how she's lost two babies within hours of giving birth to them, and this post that she shares about surrendering to God is so so encouraging.

I can so so relate to the waiting game.  This is a great post about how to live well right where you are.

I can't get over how much I love Jen Hatmaker.  And then she writes things like this about motherhood and I love her even more.

I was able to do TWO sweet one year old photo shoots this past weekend!  Feel free to check out how adorable the little boy and girl were :)

I am so close to getting a spiral vegetable slicer- does anyone have one?!  And if you do, do you like it/ use it a lot?!

And here's some pictures from the past couple weeks:

My super attractive husband telling kids about Jesus :)

Second Trip to Cooperstown :)

 

Palm Sunday:

We are SO close

Here in New York we are in this awkward in between stage with spring and winter.  And let me tell you, we are so so ready to be outside!  (as is everyone else around the Midwest)  This winter just seems to be lingering and this rainy, 40 degree weather doesn't leave us much to work with either.  However, I was able to bust out Jake's green frog boots (praise the Lord they still fit from last year!) and we were able to stomp in some puddles the other week, so that was a win. 

 

 And I can't believe I didn't post these sledding pictures yet (way down below).  Dan and I kind of failed in the parenting department this winter and only took Jake sledding once.  And you can tell he loved it, so I feel kind of bad.  In our defense no one wants to be outside in 10 degree weather sledding, which is what I feel like most of our winter up here was.  Next year Jake, we will be way on top of that.  Don't worry.