Is This the Best I Can Be

A little belated, but Happy New Years Y'all eh?!?  I guess that's what I should say since I'm a Canadian turned Southerner, can't forget where I came from!  Speaking of that, it is important to remember where we came from.  That doesn't mean we have to stay there though, dwelling in the past and clinging to whatever hold places, things, experiences. ideas and people of the past may have on us...good or bad. Clinging to a good thing in the past too tightly  or clinging to a negative for too long... To be the best we can be, is to be able to see all our experiences we've had, how they may have influenced and shaped us, but then take what's valuable towards being who you really want to be and then letting the rest go.  Forgive, Forget, Let go of ideas that hold us back from pursuing the path we feel we should go but are afraid to because it's against the grain.  Letting go of our need to please and worrying what other's will think and how we will explain ourselves.  Stop resenting where we are because maybe the past was better than the present...and just trust that you are wherever you are for a reason and to bloom where you are planted and as the seasons change, so will you.  This is all stuff I've been having to work on and learn.  A LOT.  So I'm really writing all this to myself FYI.

I pulled out some old CDs tonight trying to find something new for J to listen to and came across this old CD I  completely forgot about.  The album is Elisa, Then Come The Sun....oh wow I forgot how much I enjoy it.  Especially this song

 Just listening to it reminded me of myself and my time before becoming a mom and even as a new mom and how I envisioned things were going to be.  I'm not complaining, I am so thankful for the life I've been given, but truth is for us all, life isn't as idylic and simple as we imagined it would be, even if we have much to be thankful for, life can still get rough.  But then I just wonder...how much of that idylic vision we HAD gets washed away from our minds because of us just doing what everyone else does and not having the confidence to just do our own thing without apologies.  I know why we (I'm thinking from a mom perspective) want to do what's best, because we are always worried if we are doing what's best for our kids and in our quest to do what's best...we sometimes miss what's best, and we sometimes lose ourselves....and miss out on our full potential and our kids full potential.  

What if in our quest to be the Best we can be and do what's best for our kids...we stopped trying to be the best and do all the best things and follow all the best advice and be like our best friends, and do what the best experts say to do, be like that "best" mom we know who has the "best" kids, or the "best" husband or the "best" decor or the "best" job or the "best" school/curriculum and we just got quiet within ourselves, tap into the inspiration from the Holy Spirit and let our intuition/the Holy Spirit guide us to be the best we can be, and not be sorry about it.  We can't please everyone.  We were all uniquely created, all structures are man made...if you are finding yourself lost in life trying to keep up with it all...well...SLOW DOWN and let The One who made you grow you into the best you can be, He designed you, He knows you.  We weren't all made to do everything the same way.  We weren't all made the think the same way.  We weren't all made to learn the same way.  And we definitely weren't made to be boxed into this or that category, we were made to grow and learn continuously.  We need to be open to change and maybe doing things differently than what we are used to doing.  

I think it can be easy to miss out on the best trying to do the "best" all the time.  I guess it all goes back to the whole Mary & Martha thing.  If we are always a Martha, trying to make sure everything is the "best", we can miss out on the best thing right in front of us...in her case that was sitting, listening and resting in the presence of The LORD.  For us it is that too, as well as missing out on resting in the presence of our children, spouse or whoever, just sitting, listening, engaging without an agenda.  Enjoying our time with them and ending our day not exhausted and weary because we are too busy and putting to much on our plates thinking that's how we be the best we can be...but becoming anything but that.  I mean, If we just feel "a little over zero, is this the best we can be?"  

“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one.[a] Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

what can you take off your plate?  What can you do to live more simply?  Few things are needed.  Same with our kids...we get worried and upset about many thing but few are needed.  Let's not miss out on what's best trying to keep up with the "best" or what other people think is "best".  Let's break free and just live our lives, not being who other's want us to be or who we think we "should" be...but allowing God to grow you into who he designed you to be.  Give yourself and others grace and don't be afraid think outside the box...and while you're at it, get on the floor and turn that box into a fort, or space ship or car or whatever with your kids and turn it into a lesson without them even knowing it...then use the box for fire starter and you have science!