finding my smile:part 2

If you smile when no one else is around, you really mean it.
Andy Rooney

  

Joy robbers

I am a list maker. I make lists. It's what I do and I do it well. Cases of willful procrastination notwithstanding, we are an organized household. Running like a well oiled machine. Every day there are lists posted on our  bulletin board detailing chores, reminders etc. The girls know to look for their lists every day and that before relaxing or fun stuff they must finish their lists. This past weekend was a three day weekend and should have been characterized by fun and relaxation. But I was stressed. Thinking of all the free time a long weekend would afford I had packed my To Do list with so much that I became overwhelmed and subsequently grouchy. Again, God used my daughters as a compass on His path. Rebekah admonished me, questioning the logic behind a chore list on a holiday weekend. My grumpiness was affecting the whole family.I began wondering what peculiar kindness this was, I, task master giving out lists to children and husband and self, each day of the week like some sweat shop boss. Holidays? Never heard of 'em. Sunday? Hah. In your face. And I was getting sweaty and nauseous thinking about having to give up my list.

SLAVE. This word resounded like a gong in my head. A list means to free us from chaos.

ENSLAVED. Lists Krista-style are like choke chains. Inflexible, strict and without end. Tightening on the escapee until surrender.

Psalm 16:11
You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.


Commandments

Exodus 20:8-11

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.  Six days you shall labor, and do all your work,  but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.  For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy."

We are no longer slaves to anything. We are God's people, free, free to follow Him or to follow our own way.

 My way sucks.

There is a time and a place for my lists, but the time and place to follow God's commands is...always.

Keeping the Sabbath

"Technical civilization is man’s conquest of  space. It is a triumph  frequently achieved by sacrificing an essential ingredient of existence, namely, time. In technical civilization, we expend time to gain space. . .  The meaning of the Sabbath is to celebrate time rather than space. Six days a week we live under the tyranny of things of space; on the Sabbath we try to become attuned to holiness in time. It is a day on which we are called upon to share in what is eternal in time, to turn from the results of creation to the mystery of creation; from the world of creation to the creation of the world.”

- Abraham Joshua Heschel

I have decided that, for me, because of my unique relationship with God and to Him, that for me to keep His commandment of Sabbath I must put aside my lists for this day. I must willingly put it out of my mind so that I may relish in my God and His gift to me that is my family and friends. My smile is to be found, His joy returned to me in keeping His commandments.

1 John 5:3-4

 In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome,  for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.

  

 Ecclesiastes 8:15

So I commend the enjoyment of life, because nothing is better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany him in his work all the days of the life God has given him under the sun.