Changing Hats with Style

 
Today it’s all about me! Well, mostly about me anyway. And that’s ok. I got His permission for a “me day.” In fact, He assigned it to me.

Ok, before I lose all of my readers who visit my blog occasionally with the hopes of reading something sound and godly, let me explain.

Like many of you, I don’t have a crystal clear concept about what my priorities should be each day because life simply pulls me in so many different directions these days. Because my kids are almost grown and not quite as dependent on me as they have been in the past, I don’t have to dedicate full days to the mommy thing….usually. So I try to focus on my ministry, my work more. But just as soon as I determine that I have a whole week to write uninterrupted, you know it, I get interrupted.

This week the interruptions came mainly in the form of a 16-year-old girl. She stayed home sick two days. She was the kind of sick where she wanted me to sit with her for long stretches of time.

The next interruption came yesterday morning. She texted me from school at 7:30 with the haunting words, “I have a problem.” Turns out she had agreed to provide the birthday cake for a lunch time party in the honor of a friend…that day. If the cake had been for anything but some unsuspecting, innocent kid’s birthday I wouldn’t have bothered. But, you know what I did. I stopped everything to make a cake and decorate it with yellow icing and black lettering saying, “Let the Force be with You!” Please…

Then yesterday afternoon I carted her around for an hour and a half applying for summer jobs. And after dinner she wanted me to go for a walk with her. Mothers of 16-year-old girls just don’t let moments like that pass them by.

It’s really sad that I’ve started looking at my daughter as an interruption. Yes, God has given me meaningful and profitable work to do. But that doesn’t mean my daughter, my home, my husband, or even the friend who calls and just needs to talk are interruptions. They are every bit as much of God’s plan for me that day as writing or teaching or sending out queries.

But I still get frustrated. Because I have this huge need, probably quite unhealthy need actually, to accomplish…something. I want to be able to lie down at night and know that yes, today I finished ___________(something of value).

So ( Don’t worry. I’m getting back to the “all about me” thing shortly. Just enjoy the ride.) I came up with a new system on Tuesday morning. I decided that each day during my quiet time with God I’d simply ask Him to tell me what my two or three priorities should be for that day. I don’t expect an audible answer. This is no mysterious thing. Most days I know what those priorities should be. They’re either already scheduled on my calendar, staying home sick from school, sitting on my desk waiting to be done, piled up in the laundry baskets, needing to be mailed, begging to be vacuumed  …. you get the picture. The problem is most days even though I know what really needs to be the priority, I just want to make something else the priority.

But no more. This week my priorities were lined up by my Father, I accepted them, I followed through with them, and I felt good about having done them at the end of the day.

• Tuesday – 1)Take care of my sick daughter, 2) Write a day of my Bible study, and 3)Prepare my Bible study lesson for the next day.
• Wednesday – 1)Teach my Bible Study classes, 2) Write a day of my Bible study, and 3)mail stuff (guess what I was mailing? It was April 14th!)
• Thursday – 1)Bake a cake (late notice priority, but valid), 2)Write a day of my Bible study and 3) Take Abby to fill out applications.

I may not have solved the world’s problems, cleaned my house spic ‘n span, or even accomplished everything that begged to be done. But I completed my priorities each day. And I like to think they were indeed God’s priorities for me. I think I was really tested on that when the cake thing got thrown at me, but because I’d already decided to let God set my agenda and not me, I was able to take that one on with a sigh (initially) and then a smile (eventually).

I’m a woman who, like all of you, wears many hats. And some days it’s just hard to know which hat I’m supposed to wear. I found myself putting one hat on only to have it fly off my head with the winds of change during the day. Then, instead of willingly grabbing a different hat, I’d struggle and strive to put my hat of choice back on. Thus, I ended up with a lot of torn up hats.

So now God gets to choose my hats and just put them on and switch them out as needed throughout the day. No more chasing wind blown hats or struggling to keep my favorites on my head.

 And today? Well I already had a hair appointment on my calendar and a gift certificate for a mani/pedi in my purse, so I’m pretty sure God has scheduled me a “me day!” I’ll do other things too. I’m sure my daughter will have some emergency during the day. She usually does. And I’ll be ready for it. Because this week I’ve learned to take my hat off, put it nicely in its box and put the next one on…. with a little more grace and style than before.