Journeying

I love knowing I'm on a journey, the path laid out ahead and behind. (With kids named Strider and Miles, maybe that's obvious. Actually, though, Pete picked out those names... I guess he likes the concept of the journey, too!)

With the beginning of Fall, the beginning of October, and reading about the meaning behind the Old Testament festivals this month, I've been thinking about the Journey even more than usual lately. If we were observing the Old Testament holidays, we would have just celebrated the time of the New Year and Day of Atonement, and now at least some of us would have journeyed this week to Jerusalem for the Festival of Booths -- which looks rather like a big camping trip.

All these new beginnings, new seasons, new habits seem like new bends in the road, and as we journey on there are new things to be realized and reminded of with each step. Here are some of the things I have been reminded of lately in my Journey:

**When I compare my journey to someone else's, the result is never good. I had read about a family who had a life that looked so appealing to me. Their lifestyle sounded so peaceful and purposeful and focused and collaborative and loving... When I compare that to my loud, distracted, clamouring, complaining and argumentative household, I get very discouraged. I even spent a few days recently trying to shape us into a calmer, happier, more peaceful family... but it didn't work. As Mom reminded me, the personalities of my family are just not the same as the ones in the family I was looking at. I'm not sure how much nurture vs. nature I should be reading into that, but either way, it's a fact! So... the point is I need to stop comparing. When will I ever learn this??


**Preparation only goes so far. One of the reasons I was convinced our family was not the peaceful, loving family I wanted to be was my own laziness and distraction. I resolved to do much more focused planning, get up earlier, enforce a better schedule and focus. And I even followed through for a couple days... but still I could not accomplish what I wanted to! Just when we would get everyone seated for a meaningful discussion, or a powerful story time, someone would suddenly wet their pants, a neighbor would drop by for something, or someone would spill something on the rug. Life Interrupted seems to be our permanent motto... and I can't find any other way than to resort to my Post-It note agenda.

**A trip takes some serious planning! While I am not on a camping trip this week, I am looking ahead to a big family journey -- to Disney World. As I'm discovering, this kind of trip takes a lot of time to read about, research, etc! I wish I could just sit down and figure it all out, but instead I feel like my method has been "Planning a Disney trip in 198 two-minute time blocks." Needless to say, I feel a little scattered about all this, but I hope it will all work out and be fun anyway!

Well, I have other lessons and things I've been thinking about.... but after 6 interruptions (including being shot in the head with a nerf gun bullet) during the time I've been writing this, I think it's just time to end this post. The good news is the Journey is not over and each step brings us further along, hopefully with increasing wisdom and joy. Proverbs 4:18!