I was really struck by something I heard yesterday during a message at church:
I want to be able to turn my good intentions into actions.
This coupled with a recent quote I saw on twitter posted by Robin:
Dreaming about a thing after God has spoken is indication we do not trust Him – O Chambers.
Add that to something Ro has been talking about on her blog and which I have also read about in this book lately:
30 Days to a New Life – because it takes 30 days to start a new habit.
Will all of this similar information coming at me, it’s hard to ignore. I think one way God speaks to our hearts is telling us the same message in many different ways. It’s harder for me to ignore Him this way.
So after much thought, here are the two new habits I’m working on. Keep in mind I had a list of a BUNCH of new habits I’d like to implement, but to have success, I’m told it’s best to just pick one or two at a time and work on those for 30 days.
1. Monday – Thursday, do not turn my computer on until my kids’ rest time. I can be on it during their rest time, and at nite after they are in bed. That’s it. This is a very hard one for me, but something God has personally been challenging me on for months. Maybe even a couple years. So if I’m quiet on email, Facebook, twitter, messageboards etc. I have my reasons. Family first, the interwebs can wait. And so can Photoshop, Blogging, etc. I waste serious time on the computer unless I’m given time constraints. There is too much too learn, too much to be inspired by on the web, and it all takes time away from what I am called to be doing at this season of my life.
2. Find Make Magical Moments in the Mundane. At least one per day.
I say “make” because, I think I need to be pro-active. Or to term it a different way “Thoughtfully Creative.” Too often I think magical moments will happen randomly. More often than not they require effort and thoughtful planning to allow time and room for them in our day.
So amidst doing the normal, mundane things of life, like laundry, I want to be able to look back on the day and think, oh but remember that one special moment. That was magical. And I think it can happen.
Today our magical moment was eating our lunch in our tornado shelter. Our tornado shelter is daddy and mommy’s closet. We’ve been studying about weather and storms and tornados in our life learning, and so it seemed fitting to eat a picnic in our shelter. We all loved it, including me. It was special. It helped break up the mundane.
Planning out that magical moment took little of my time. And what I found was that moment set the tone of our day to allow a few more glimmers of magic here or there.
Like Nehemiah teaching Luther to pray. Special!
Or like this spontaneous art that was created.
We’ll see how this goes. 30 days from now, I hope I have a couple new habits to show for it.
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Ditto on the computer thing. I have limits I follow as well. Good luck!
Very cool! Magic moments! It has been hard for me to limit computer time too. I have placed limits similar to yours so my attention isn’t divided—it doesn’t always happen—I do my best though! I can’t even believe how different life is with kids. Much more scheduling and planning than I have been used to but really it’s worth it.
On another note, maybe dreaming about something is God talking again, to reinforce the message and keep your attention on the message. Just like what you talked about above, I always think something’s really important if it keeps coming up.
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