Our Life in Review...Things I Hope You Remember as You Venture into the Big Wide World!

My friend Renee Booe who is “calling me up” and challenging me to write is writing a series on her blog called, “Things I Need My Kids to Know Before I Die.” Check it out here http://www.spuronlove.com…. I love reading the things she wants to make sure her children know. Things like “speak life over people!” She’s at the beginning of this parenting journey. Her munchkins are 7, 6, and 3. There are so many amazing days ahead for Renee. And she is a great mommy! She’s going to fill her children with amazing values, hopes, and dreams. As I read her thoughts, I’m inspired to write my own series.

I’m at a much different stage in life. Whether I like it or not, those days are done for me. No one asked me, “Are you ready for your babies to grow up? Have you taught them everything they need to know to succeed in life?” I closed my eyes and poof… they were gone. The nest is empty. They’ve flown the coop. (That’s a little dramatic. They live 30 minutes away. But still…)

So my series is going to be called

 “Our Life in Review…Things I Hope You Remember as You Venture into the Big Wide World!”

I started making my list of all the things I’ve tried to teach my children about living life. This could be a really long series! It took me 25 years to compile. What do you expect?!

This whole concept has me curious. I wonder what THEY would say they learned from ME. And would their lists for mom and dad be different? I might just have to give them an assignment. Aren’t you curious what your kids would say?

I’m afraid mine would go something like…

Mom taught me to always iron my clothes when going out in public.

Dad taught me - don’t spit in the wind.

Now I’m just being silly. I’m pretty sure they got some of the deeper life lessons we were going for. I know that because of WHO they are. And HOW they live their lives. But I really do wonder what they would attribute to each of us or neither of us. I’ll get back to you on that.

For this first installment I’m going to go with what I think would be on their Top 10 list. It is a phrase they heard from the first time God started teaching me this truth, to the present.

“Be anxious for nothing. This is a be-anxious-for-nothing-moment.”

My youngest Cody was probably 8 and Erin 10 when I asked God to help me understand what He means in Philippians 4:6-7. They are now 23 and 25.

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

When I read that I want to say, “Surely you don’t mean to not be anxious about a serious health crisis. I mean there are things worthy of getting anxious about.” But I look at it again and realize the word He used was NOTHING. For a worrier like me that is incredulous. How can that be? There are so many things that cause anxiety in me. But this seems to be saying that He has made a way for me to not be anxious. That when I bring my request to Him, he will exchange that need with a gift of peace that doesn’t make sense for the situation. He added that little note about thanksgiving. Hmm…

So the first week that I was talking to the Lord about helping me understand just how this scripture is supposed to work in real life, my husband left for an 8 month deployment. We had just moved into a “fixer-upper.” This was long before Chip and Joanna Gaines made it cool! We had enough time for my husband to pull the 3 layers of cat-pee carpet (I’m not exaggerating here) out of the house. Put a new roof on. (Yep he did that DIY with the help of a few guys from church. What were we thinking?) Lay ceramic tile in the kitchen and laminate in the family room. And paint every wall in the house. He worked late into the night Sunday before he was leaving. But the one thing he couldn’t get done was moving the refrigerator back into the kitchen. It was hooked up in the sunroom. That left a copper hose sticking out of the wall which I gracefully snapped in half as I was walking by the first week he was gone.

Water started pouring out of the wall, puddling quickly on my kitchen floor. Talk about anxiety!! I’m sure it was a sight to see. I was frantically trying to figure out how to stop the flow of water. I was sure it was going to ruin the new laminate flooring in the adjacent room. Not knowing what else to do, I called my dad. He lived 7 hours away. He calmly told me that I needed to find the water main and call a plumber. This was not a problem I was going to be able to handle alone. And he couldn’t fix it from there. With his help, I found the water main and got the water turned off. I hung up the phone and flopped down on my kitchen floor and sobbed.

“It’s not enough that my husband had to leave me for 8 months to go to some war-torn desert. Now I have plumbing problems I can’t fix too!” As I sat there throwing a fine pity party (balloons, streamers, and all) I heard a little voice in my heart. Not audible. Just a sense.

“You asked me to show you how to be anxious for nothing. This is lesson number one. I have an answer.” Ok. Those are totally my words. But the message in my heart was loud and clear. I knew that God was showing me what this scripture means. I started praying. “Lord, help me figure out what to do. Thank you for this house. But, I can’t afford a plumber!” I’m pretty sure God would have made a way for me to pay a plumber. But this was one of my hang ups.

I quickly had the thought that a guy from church had just offered to be available if anyone needed handyman help. Much as I didn’t want to call him…self-sufficiency is another one of my issues…I called. He just happened to be home. And within an hour he and another guy had my problem fixed.

Wait. What?! Seriously? That’s how this "be anxious for nothing thing" works? That started a whole series of problems. For any of you military spouses out there, you know what I’m talking about. If it can go wrong, it does go wrong while your spouse is deployed.  I must have been passing the early exams though, because the tests got harder. But that’s for another post.

What I want to finish with here is that I had gained a revelation about God and His ways that I really wanted to pass on to my children. Let’s face it. Life is hard. There’s lots to be anxious about. If I could help them understand that God cares about EVERYTHING, and He already has a solution prepared, maybe their lives would be a little better.

So the mantra in our house when problems arose was often…that’s a "be-anxious-for-nothing moment" Let’s pray about it!

We prayed about lost keys, impossible homework, and broken hearts. Problems big and small. We still do. We saw God work out scary traveling-alone-to-Istanbul moments for my daughter as she went out on her study-abroad adventure, and moments where He met Cody in his Air Force journey. I’m not 100% sure they always remember to pray about everything first. But if they take a breath. And think. I know that mantra plays through their minds. I hope they hear my voice saying "Be anxious for nothing! Pray!"

Please check out these other writers who are putting themselves out there in this writing challenge!

Renee

Stephanie

Traci

Jessie