At the beginning of this summer I had a whole list of things to learn before school-time swung 'round again. (Hone sewing skills, maybe paint/decorate a room, research things like "What herbal remedies to give Suzy when she has a cold", maybe learn to decorate cakes really well, learn to play in all the keys on the piano...)
It's nearly the end of the Pyatskowits' Summer Break.
And.
I have done almost none of this.
I was feeling a little disappointed/I had better hurry up and do my best to finish this stuff because school is coming and my opportunity will be GONE!
I hadn't fulfilled my dreams. I was being purposeless. I was wasting time. I wasn't doing the big things that I had wanted to do. I felt like I'd missed my chance. LIFE HAD PASSED ME BY!!!! (*Sob*) I wasn't fulfilled.
As the gravel crunched beneath my feet and the breeze blew soothingly, I remembered a long-ago prayer and this long-ago thought.
What is fulfillment to a Christian? Is it diligently chasing a dream, catching it, then, finally, living it? Is it doing big things that society considers notable? Is it living a life that you can be satisfied with? No. I think, to a Christian, fulfillment is doing what God wants you to do. Nothing more, nothing less.
A few examples could be like this:
What, I can ask myself sometimes, is being fulfilled in "this" situation? Living up to my dreams for the summer so I'll feel that I've done something with myself, or tying shoestrings and fixing hair for my six year old sister. (Though, I will say, I didn't give up a "dream" this summer because I had to fix my little sister's hair. This is just a scenario.)
What makes me fulfilled - Sewing denim skirts - because it's something I want to learn, or working in the garden because that's what I really have to do right now.
What is being fulfilled - checking off everything on my list at the end of the day, or taking time for the interruptions that God allows to come along.
I think, many times, we need to let go of our list of one-hundred-and-one-things-I-should-be-doing-right-now and realize that God's work is what we should be doing right now. We don't have to change the world or do something amazing to be working for God (and we all know that, right?) - "God's work" is "obeying your parents" when the weeds in the garden are three feet high. "God's work" is "training up a child in the way he should go" even when leading by example means stepping away from the sewing machine to help so-and-so with her hair. "God's work" is sometimes small. "God's work" isn't always noble to the world. But God's work is good work.
2 comments:
"Whatever task a child is given, is God's work and needs to be accomplished with God's strength according to God's laws." ~C. Mason
I read this yesterday and thought it sums up your post very well. I appreciate how you have helped out so cheerfully this summer...it has indeed been busy, with little "free" time.
Sincerely hoping you can learn more about all the things on your list this fall/winter!
Mom
Thank you, Anna! This encouraging! We enjoy reading your posts.
God Bless!
~The Keller Girls~
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