Confessions of a Peace Lover...

Let me just say right up front, I love babies! I was able to hold my cousin's grandson at church on Sunday. Oh, what a great feeling, little Alex snuggled into my shoulder and I was in baby bliss.

Every now and again I get to keep my sister's grandbabies. Again, oh what a feeling, I delight in them. They are sweet and innocent. I love the laughter of a child as well as the peace that is found in rocking a little one to sleep and then sitting and holding them while they sleep. It is rest for my soul. Ahhhhh.

That being said, I am glad I am no longer in the baby stages of life; relieved that diapers are no longer on my shopping list; relishing in the fact that a diaper bag is no longer part of every outing, and absolutely overjoyed that a full nights sleep is routine for me! I enjoyed each and every one of the five babies we have been blessed with, but I am thoroughly enjoying the stage of life we are in right now!

Our family keeps us busy. We enjoy our time together; we love the laughter and conversations that develop.

We have two adult children to bounce adult ideas around with. We have a teenager who is a deep thinker and asks questions that I have never given thought to. And then there are the two elementary age children who keep us young and yet have reached that stage where they can listen, ask questions, respond, and have a basic understand of where we're coming from as we talk about life and the journey it entails.

Just this morning we were talking about "the important stuff of life" the stuff that HAS to be, instead of just the stuff we like. I likened it to the walnut and rice jar. Are you familiar with that analogy? If so, please bear with me as I explain it again:

You take a quart jar (which represents the twenty-four hours each one of us has in a day) and you fill it with 22 walnuts and 2 cups of rice. If you put the rice in first, all of the walnuts will not fit. But if you put the walnuts in first, the rice will sift its way around the walnuts and fill up the empty spots.

The walnuts are the important things of life, the things that MUST be. The rice is the "stuff" or the "busy-ness" of life, the things that fill our time, but are really not essential to our well-being.

On our way to school we began to "name" our walnuts.

For 11 year old Megan and 8 year old Clay the walnuts include:

1. God time
2. Family time
3. School
4. Brushing teeth (!!!)
5. Homework
6. Eating right
7. Exercise
8. Chores
9. Play time/Fun (essential in all of our lives but mandatory in the life of a child!)

The rest of the walnuts are variables. They are things that must go in some days, or for a season, but not every day. Piano lessons and a commitment to a team sport are an example of variables in Megan's life. Clay is young enough that he doesn't have as many walnuts to worry about - he feels like a pretty lucky kid, that leaves way more room for rice!

The rice in their lives looks a lot like #9 - fun, but too much rice is "fun" in excess, more than is necessary. I would never call outdoor play "rice" but anything electronic, yup, that's rice. TV, computer games, Gameboy, or Wii, are non-essentials, definitely rice! The rice in our lives is usually ok in controlled amounts; large amounts can be detrimental to our health - physically, academically, relationally, emotionally, and spiritually!

At their age, they would be content to fill their daily jar with rice. That's where the job of parenting comes in. The responsibility of growing them into healthy members of society, instead of simply allowing their days to be filled with, well, with rice!

It's really no different than what we try to teach our kids about a healthy diet, it's simply being responsible with the time we've been given, just as we try to teach them to be responsible about the food they are putting in their bodies. The walnuts are the bottom of the food pyramid - the healthy foundation; the rice is the top, tasty, but not so good for you.

Can you name your walnuts?

Are you doing a good job of getting them into your jar before you allow the rice to fill your jar/day?

This coming week I'm going to take a nice long look at the walnuts in my life.as well as the rice!

Betcha know what I'll be talking about next week!

Until then..

Beth