Impossible decisions. Unexpected situations. We are all here, aren’t we? I find myself daily second guessing so many things, especially schooling for my children and how to schedule my music students this Fall. In person or virtual – how many times do I say those words now on a daily basis? And honestly, I always had a desire to keep my kids out of mainstream public school for middle school years – and God has certainly answered that prayer and desire! Even if it is in the most unconventional way I ever imagined.
So how do we make the RIGHT decision for moving forward, whatever that looks like for each of us? So many opinions, so “many” options. Really, are there a lot of options right now? Possibly. But certainly not the option that we all long for: a return back to NORMAL. And what is normal? A busy schedule? Hustling to and fro between sports practices, music lessons, therapy appointments? Spending hours in the car? Making sure we spend time with all our people, which then can lead to exhaustion and spreading ourselves out too thin?
We do the next right thing.
Emily P. Freeman, in her book The Next Right Thing, observes, “Sometimes it looks like you’re going nowhere or that you’re headed in the wrong direction. I’m learning that the decision itself is rarely the point. The point is becoming more fully ourselves in the presence of God, connecting with Him and with each other, and living our lives as though we believe He is good and beautiful. The point is being honest about where you are and what you need and then looking around in your own community for people to walk with you and with whom you can walk….I’m convinced God is less interested in where we end up then He is in who we are becoming. Whether we’re employed or unemployed, encouraged or discouraged, filled with vision or fumbling in the fog. More than anything, our Father just wants to be with us..”
I don’t know a lot of the future (ok-do I really know any of it?), but I do know that God has called me to remain in Him…to spend time with Him, to listen to Him and let Him lead me. And in that abiding/dwelling/remaining I am reminded that I am SAFE. That He has best intentions for me and my family, that His ways can only be good, and that although His way may not be my way, He leads me through it all.
So I ask these questions at the beginning of my day: Who am I today? What is God calling me to do today? How can I be faithful today? When I narrow my lens of questions to TODAY, and reframe my thoughts to be God-centered questions, the fog and overwhelm are held at bay. Clarity comes for today because I know who I am and whose I am. I am a child of God, beloved and made for a relationship with Him.
Today he has given me a family to love and care for, a puppy to play with and potty train, parents to serve as they are in a season of illness, and music studio families who need to be placed on my Fall schedule. I often say to friends, “I know today, and today is good.”
Today I make the best informed decision to sign my 7th grade daughter up for a Hybrid learning model for school. Today I spend a quiet hour before the household wakes reflecting, reading and praying (to be sure, this is after puppy is played out, has taken a chunk out of my hair, yet has only bitten me once so far- and is now taking his first nap of the day). Today I want to stay in partnership with God, to remain in Him with all my decisions and all my doings.
I do not know what tomorrow holds-maybe more outbreak, maybe people close to me contracting this horrible virus, maybe 5 more months of living on Zoom. Those thoughts overwhelm and honestly bring a cloud of depression over me.
And what good does it do me to dwell on tomorrow?
In that, I may miss today.
And today is good.
