Finding Grace in the Interruptions - Part 2

Welcome back to my little series of Finding Grace in the Interruptions. I hope you found Part 1 helpful. There, I looked at how God often sends things our way that we might be tempted to label 'interruptions' or 'hindrances' to our plans, but are actually His way of getting our attention or teaching us something valuable.

However, sometimes these 'frustrations' might actually be more of our own doing than an 'opportunity' sent by God. What do I mean? Well, perhaps us feeling annoyed and irritated is actually a sign that either we have our priorities wrong or we have overstretched ourselves.

1) Wrong priorities

I'm sure you're familiar with the scene: you've just set your toddler down with a box of legos, and your preschooler seems happily engaged with her dolls. "Great!", you think, "I'll just check my emails." Ten minutes later you're in the middle of reading the latest blog entry on one of your favourite websites when the toddler and preschooler start fighting, or the preschooler needs to be taken to the toilet, or the toddler wants you to help him build a tall tower of blocks. "I'll be there in a minute!" you promise. A minute goes by. More whining. "Hold on,  Mummy's just reading something important...." Then it strikes you. Actually, to be honest, what you're reading is not that important, and certainly nothing that couldn't wait until your kids are tucked up in bed that evening. Your life suddenly flashes before your eyes, and you see yourself in an empty house, kids having flown the nest, regretting all those missed opportunities of building tower blocks of legos or rejoicing in milestones reached and skills mastered. I've been there so many times!

Now, sometimes our children might be interrupting something important, like the fact that we really do have to get dinner in the oven or finishing hanging up the laundry. In those situations it's good to pray for grace and patience. Perhaps this is an opportunity to teach our children how to help with household tasks, or perhaps we need to allow ourselves an extra half an hour to finish whatever it is we're doing. 

Something that helped me was to remind myself that God is in control. He knows I need to get the dinner in the oven, or provide the family with clean clothes. Living in a culture that values people over time has also helped. I know that He will help me accomplish all the things I need to accomplish without me having to sin by shouting at or being impatient with my children.

"By His divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life.." 2 Peter 1v3

However, I've come to realise that a lot of the time it's just me being selfish with my 'me-time'. When I decided that I wouldn't open my computer during the hours that my children were awake unless it was for homeschool purposes, or to check something quickly that my husband wanted me to do, then suddenly I became a much more patient and purposeful Mummy. The same goes for phone calls and texts. I don't want my children to grow up thinking that my computer is more important than they are!

2) Over-committing

Sometimes we might have our priorities right, like we know that it would be really good to help our six-year-old with her art project right now, or we'd love to chat through with our friend who's just popped round about the struggles she's having with her marriage, but we don't have the time because we need to be off to X, Y or Z.  Or maybe we find that most of our daily annoyances come from lost shoes or last minute toilet trips as we're desperately trying to usher the kids out of the door and into the car. In that case it might be time to look at whether we've overcommitted ourselves.

Do we really need to have volunteered to help run the children's group at church? Do we really have time to go to this Bible study? Does our child really need to go to three sports practices each week? All of these are good things, but perhaps they're not God's best for us at the moment.

I still feel a wound in my own heart from the time, almost 20 years ago now, when I desperately wanted to talk to a friend about my parents' recent divorce, but she was too busy. Now, she didn't know what I wanted to talk about, and she was busy with important, church-related things, but I still to this day feel that she let me down. I would hate to think that I would in turn do that to someone else without realising it.

Filling our lives up with busyness, even good, 'Christian' busyness, is not always God's best for us. How can we be a light and blessing to others if we don't have a little space in our day to allow for these kinds of heaven-sent 'interruptions'?

"Martha, Martha, the Lord answered, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her." Luke 10 v 41,42

For the third and final part to this mini-series I'll be looking at one other caveat, where perhaps the interruptions we're facing have a different agenda behind them. You can find it here.

Q: Have you had a time when you realised you had your priorities wrong? How did God speak to you about it?

Q: Have you been in a situation where you felt God was directing you to drop some of your other commitments and focus on being at home?

As always, I would love to read your comments, so don't be shy!

Abide in Him!

Photo Credits: freedigitalphotos.net. Girl with toys: Tratong, Woman at computer: Stuart Miles, Mother and Son: Ambro, Coffee: Stuart Miles

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