Saturday, September 3, 2011

SQUIRREL!

Once again, I must admit I am easily distracted....I'm a bit like the dogs from the movie "UP" and just about anything flying across my field of vision can cause me to go off on a tangent. "SQUIRREL" has become somewhat of a catch phrase for me to describe my lack of attention span. In fact, I even had to write down what this blog would be about as soon as I could because I knew if I waited I'd forget!

I don't think I'm the only person who deals with this; I'm pretty sure we've become a nation distracted. We have forgotten our purpose. We need to go back and look at why we were created. When we can keep our purpose, our vision in mind we can stay on course and not be distracted from what is important.

I know that others like to know what the vision or purpose is as well. Every day at least one of my students will ask me, "What are we going to do today?" They simply cannot concentrate on what is in front of them without wondering what else we have planned for that day. In fact, I've started putting "Today's Vision" on the board for all to see. It's there in big letters so that their minds can rest at ease knowing what is to come.

In my daily lesson plans, I have found that I need to rewrite them in a different format that allows me to see in big letters what I'm doing each day. The big letters are important....because I'm having a bit of trouble seeing now that I've added years to my resume. I need my "to do" vision for each day because I am so easily distracted from my purpose.

I used to tell kids in Kid's Church that it didn't matter if someone told them they were ADD, ADHD, LMNOP, QRS or TUV - we have a G-O-D that is big enough to handle all of it! I know that my GOD has a purpose for my life. I believe the Bible when it says He knew all the days of my life before even one of them came to be. If He knew them all, I have to believe He has a purpose for them. My job is to write that purpose down so I can really run with it.

So, that's all today's blog is about...writing down what God has told you to do so that you won't get distracted and find yourself way off track. This doesn't necessarily mean you'll head off the mission field tomorrow, although some will. What it does mean is that we recognize in our everyday life what God is doing. If my purpose is to be an encourager, I'll encourage whether I am a teacher, a brick layer, a housewife, or a doctor. If my purpose is to teach, I'll teach whether I am a janitor, a flight attendant, a zoo keeper, or a cowboy. If....well, you get the picture. We have a purpose...a vision of what God wants to do with our life. We need to write it down and run with it. Who knows how far God will allow us to go when we finally stop chasing squirrels.

Habakkuk 2:2-3  The Message

And then God answered: "Write this.
Write what you see.
Write it out in big block letters
so that it can be read on the run.
This vision-message is a witness
pointing to what's coming.
It aches for the coming—it can hardly wait!
And it doesn't lie.
If it seems slow in coming, wait.
It's on its way. It will come right on time.
 
Psalms 139: 13 -18
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.

1 comment:

Kathryn said...

Oh girl! I SO totally get what you are talking about! I will get all kinds of ideas for blogposts but before I can.....SQUIRREL! See? Told ya! Thanks for the reminder to start writing things down again - I used to do that and then....SQUIRREL! Yep! You got it - got distracted and quit.

So good to be reminded by Him through friends of things I need to be doing - thanks :)