Remind Yourself

Some of you may not know that over the last month our family has made a rather big move.

My husband has accepted a position at my families business in the town I grew up in. So in the 2nd time in a 9 month period we have packed up all of our belongings and moved to southern Minnesota. A whirlwind of unbalance and chaos came to join us in the transition process, while daily structured life deiced to go on vacation.

Enjoying the fact they have carpet to roll around on now ; )

In the midst of packing, cleaning, house showings, and preparing meals I started to become overwhelmed and discouraged. My only solace was that Brett had a start date of June 1st. I knew that when that date rolled around we would be in our new home, somewhat unpacked, and settling in. On this date, I was also determined to welcome home daily structured life from what seemed like away to long extend vacation. Through out the whole process I found myself asking "Why are we doing this to ourselves?" But then I remind myself of the hope of the quality life we have been dreaming of.

You see at the exact same time my husband revived the offer from my parents to come work for them He also got two other offers from two separate companies with great bosses. So he had 3 different offers all at once. All 3 had great benefits. One allowed us to stay close to his family and did not require a move. Another offered a partnership expanding our friends business strengthen his presence in North Dakota. And the last was the opportunity to live close to my family for the first time in our eight years of marriage. Needless to say at first glance it was a very difficult choice. We even sat on all of the offers for a couple of months hoping to get some direction form the Lord one way or another. However, it appeared that He has chosen to remain silent on the matter. This was going to be the first time in our marriage that we were going to have to make a decision with out the Lord saying to us 'this is the way to go', even if we did chose to stay where we were.

In the past we have heard when God doesn't answer which way to go He is saying you chose and I will bless you as long as you keep my commandments. Well it appeared that this theory was about to be tested in our lives. We had also heard things like 'God gave you common sense for a reason, use it!' and 'If you ask for wisdom it will be given to you.' (Thank you Joyce Meyers) Ultimately it was time to ask ourselves what kind of life do we want? I'm not talking about how much money do we want to make or save. We have never chased money and we weren't about to start. Truth be known we would have been more comfortable being directed by the Lord to go into foreign missions then to be left to the choices at hand with out His input.

Quality of life is different from one family to the next. For us a big key was/is being together as much as possible. There were other factors that arose in the decision making process, but TIME trumped everything else in this case. The first two jobs mentioned kept Brett away for long periods of time from us. One from when the kids got up in the morning till they went to bed at night, five days a week. The other took Brett out of the state 4 days a week. This meant that he would have 3 day weekends and the commitment of such a schedule would only last 3-4 years tops. However, It was still overwhelming to think that he would essentially miss out of the first 3-4 years of our new baby's life. The offer from my parent however gave us the gift of TIME. I needed to keep reminding myself this choice to move even though the amount of work, time, and energy was overwhelming the payoff in the end would be more time together. Not just on a weekly basis but from day to day as well. The other offers were not requiring any initial work, but rather perseverance and endurance, but the pay out was only financial, ironically NOT WORTH IT! In our book anyway.

Field Trip Day Learning About Streams, Rivers, Waterfalls, And Rocks

Fast forward to June 14th only a couple short weeks after our packing up and moving out. We are experiencing the fruit of our choice.  Brett works Monday-Thursday 5 am to 3 pm giving us 5 hours with to be together as a whole family before the kids go to bed. Fridays we have dubbed 'field trip day' in which Brett gets to be involved in the childrens' education! We get to take the whole family at our own pace to explore Minnesota and learn new things tied to our topics for that week. Saturday is filled with simply enjoying each other, due to the fact we get all our projects out of the way during the weekdays extra time. We get to see family, friends and I even get a little alone time at my favorite get away spots.  Sunday is another whole day to fellowship with the body. We rest, reboot, and refresh. As I reflect today, reminding myself this is the quality of life we have set our eyes on. I'm in disbelief that we actually have it. I am feeling overwhelmed once again, but this time it's not with the sense of what needs to get done but rather with blessing, peace, and joy.

Of course we have the day to day trials, fighting over getting school work done, picking up toys, and building character. But in the midst I remind myself of the life we have, and the hopeful outcome of strong relationships with my children and theirs with the Lord. Reminding myself there will be a marked date on the calendar that it will all come together and I will see the fruit of the work, time, and energy I have, WE have put in.

Remind yourself today, what are you shooting for, what quality of life do you want, what are your hopes for the future. Share them with the Lord and then work together with Him towards them. Push off others wavering opinions, we could have listen to others opinion and chose money over time. But we knew, YOU know what is the best life for your family. You are the one who has to live it, you might as well enjoy it.