Slowing Down

Stephen Covey tells the story of a man who was walking through a forest when he came across a frustrated lumberjack.

The lumberjack was trying to cut down a tree and was swearing and cursing as he labored in vain.

“What’s the problem?” the man asked.

“My saw’s blunt and won’t cut the tree properly,” the lumberjack responded.

“Why don’t you just sharpen it?”

“Because then I would have to stop sawing,” said the lumberjack.

“But if you sharpened your saw, you could cut more efficiently and effectively than before.”

“But I don’t have time to stop!” The lumberjack retorted, getting more frustrated.

The man shook his head and kept on walking, leaving the lumberjack to his pointless frustration.

I think life can be just like this story.  There are so many things to do and so little time. You wake up and have to get your family ready for the day, get them to school, get to work on time, hope you remembered to put on two of the same shoes on.  I’ll be honest, I feel accomplished as long as there are two socks on both kids’ feet even if they don’t match!  Kassie also makes sure to tell Amber that I never have matching socks for her! (Thanks Kassie)

Life is already so hectic and busy before adding the stress of the holiday season. Sometimes we have to remember to take time to recharge.  It’s so easy to get into the mentality that there is no time to stop and we just have to power through until everything is done.  The problem with that, is that life always throws us a curve, and we may go months or years without taking some time to sharpen our blade.

When we go through our days without taking the time to regroup and recharge, we start to get stuck in a routine and begin missing all that is happening around us.  Time with our spouse and kids can become knocking things off a checklist until we can go to sleep, and then we wake up and do it all over again.  The deeper we fall into this way of life, the more we miss going on around us.

So what is the solution?  How do we get around this pitfall?  We have to learn to take time to stop, even when life is busier than we expected, and slow down.  Have a family movie night, get a babysitter and go out to dinner, take time each week to just spend time as a family.  You’ll find that even a small amount of time will help you recharge!  Amber and I have found this to be vital in our life.  As many of you know we began fostering back in June 2017.  We had no real idea how busy life could be until we, on what was a normal Monday night for us, suddenly went from D.I.N.K’s (Dual Income No Kids) to having two kids in a matter of hours.  We didn’t any on-ramp and these kids needed us more than ever.  We have learned the hard way that if we don’t take the time to slow down, life can begin to get the better of us.  We try to take time each week to do something as a family and make sure we have time for date night as well.

Dont be afraid to take time for you!  It will mean more to your family in the long run than you know.

Each Friday on our Church Facebook Page we will be posting a #FamilyLifeFriday moment.  This is just a simple way for us to take a moment each week to do something with our families.

We also will be starting a new Family Life Series called “Connecting to Whole and Happy” in October!  Join us as we discuss Marriage, Finances and Kids.  Join us October 7th for Family Communion Sunday, October 14th for Marriage, 21st for Finances and 28th for Kids. You wont want to miss this great opportunity.  On the 14th, 21st and 28th we will have giveaways!