Our family life is currently shiny bright. This isn't bragging. It is the truth, God-given, and appreciated. Practicing our faith, living our values, and sticking together through the tough times has helped us to flourish. Since the accident, I've been wondering if all our brightness has tricked me, tricked our family, into not seeing some shaded corners of our otherwise shiny life.
Corner one: Finances
The accident cost us money and forced us to look again at how we have been handling our money. There was a time, not long ago, when our family was debt-free and had comfortable savings. This lifestyle was gained through a lot of hard work and sacrifice. Yet, the past few years brought with them financial challenges combined with growing children and apathy that a good, secure income can bring.
Where is the family glue here? Our new family project, of course! We are working together on our finances to include reading books on the subject, having meetings, pulling together a budget, and of course making financial sacrifices to reach our goals.
Corner two: Time Management
The accident cost us time. Plus, after I finally said, "Yes," to God to look again at our finances, I had to beg, "Lord, I know how much time and energy this will entail! Can you PLEASE help me to figure out how I can squeeze one more thing into my full life?" Within a few days, He helped me see a solution to a time management puzzle that has been haunting me for over a year.
The stage is now set for many blog posts as our family bumbles, I mean grows in unity, through our latest projects. Thanks be to God.
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Crash and Rebuild
On July 11, 2006, our whole family was in a vehicle accident that left our old van totaled, our bodies bruised and achey, and our souls strong. Going through difficulties together as a family has a way of showing our strengths and weaknesses. Fortunately, this time, we saw mostly our strengths.
It has been a long haul recovering from this accident. Much time was diverted from other areas of our family life to deal with the fallout. Although our family was not at fault, we needed to spend a lot of energy standing up for ourselves and making sure that we were restored to as close to our life before the accident as possible.
In the midst of this drawn out affair, I kept thinking...wishing...hoping...that it would be over soon. I wanted my life back quickly. I wanted normalcy. I wanted...I wanted...
Well, God didn't want us to go back to normal. He wanted us to hang out on our knees for awhile. He wanted us to take a good, hard look at ourselves. I was reminded of a metaphor for the development of children. Children develop like a house of cards. Two cards are propped together and stand...for awhile. Then something causes the primitive house of cards to collapse. The two cards are picked up and restructured, using two more cards. This house stands for a longer time. Yet, the house eventually collapses again. This collapse and rebuild happens over and over as the child develops and matures, integrating new and old.
Once I stopped wanting "life as I knew it" back, I was able to say "yes" to God in a more complete way. Our family has been able to grow and mature. We crashed and with God's grace, we are rebuilding something more durable, stable, flexible, and beautiful.
It has been a long haul recovering from this accident. Much time was diverted from other areas of our family life to deal with the fallout. Although our family was not at fault, we needed to spend a lot of energy standing up for ourselves and making sure that we were restored to as close to our life before the accident as possible.
In the midst of this drawn out affair, I kept thinking...wishing...hoping...that it would be over soon. I wanted my life back quickly. I wanted normalcy. I wanted...I wanted...
Well, God didn't want us to go back to normal. He wanted us to hang out on our knees for awhile. He wanted us to take a good, hard look at ourselves. I was reminded of a metaphor for the development of children. Children develop like a house of cards. Two cards are propped together and stand...for awhile. Then something causes the primitive house of cards to collapse. The two cards are picked up and restructured, using two more cards. This house stands for a longer time. Yet, the house eventually collapses again. This collapse and rebuild happens over and over as the child develops and matures, integrating new and old.
Once I stopped wanting "life as I knew it" back, I was able to say "yes" to God in a more complete way. Our family has been able to grow and mature. We crashed and with God's grace, we are rebuilding something more durable, stable, flexible, and beautiful.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
