Stay at Home and Enjoy Your Family

There has been an ice storm in Raleigh and all the roads are horrendous. In Wake Forest, all over Raleigh and even as far east as Clayton and Smithfield the roads are completely covered with hard packed, solid ice. So in the spirit of us folk down south, “Quick, close down the city. Get your milk and bread!” and the governor said…….. The roads are terrible and dangerous so whatever you do Stay at Home and Enjoy your family. ENJOY YOUR FAMILY…… those words rang out in my head and thoughts raced through.

Isn’t that a great thought? Snow on the ground outside; a roaring fire; hot cup of coffee; a big family breakfast, a movie and maybe a board game after sledding and a snowball fight (or in this case, an “iceball” fight). It’s a beautiful picture isn’t it? It absolutely is and I’m looking forward to the day. It’s an opportunity just like so many other moments in our lives. It’s an opportunity to either seize the moment and truly be grateful and enjoy it for what it is – a chance to show love, experience Joy and live the life God intended – OR – let the moment pass because we are too busy or focused on issues and problems or constantly chasing “something.” And everyone has their “something” that they feel they need, usually something that we think will finally make our lives good or better. Then others are running from their something. This world is broken and we all have trials and tribulations, some more desperate and heartbreaking than others but all equally troubling and worrisome. Run TO something or run FROM something. Or maybe not run at all – Be still and know that I am God. Just a thought…

Back to the governor! Of course I enjoy my family! They’re the primary focus of my life; the people I see the most and Love more than anything. BUT…… and nothing good comes after But….. many of us only have to look back to Thanksgiving or Christmas to recall examples of dysfunction or discord. We all have those skeletons that we allow to sabotage our happiness.

I’m laughing out loud as I recall what just happened to me. A moment ago I experienced a comical example of what might sabotage the opportunity of Joy given to us. In an effort to improve our sometimes not so healthy lifestyle, my wife suggested that while we’re stuck indoors today, we should drink the recommended 8 glasses of water. But I’m not wired that way. When I’m stuck indoors like this, I’m going to eat chocolate chip cookies, popcorn, diet coke and snack all day. I’ll be healthy the other days but this one day while indoors and it’s below freezing outside, I’ll probably choose to be the pinnacle of unhealthy. Because I disagreed with Michelle’s idea, she threw her hands up and exclaimed “I’m just trying to make a game of this since we’re ALL STUCK INSIDE TOGETHER.” Her comment was innocent enough – certainly nothing sinister but in a humorous way was a good example of the decisions we make throughout the day. How we “See” things; our attitude is the driving force of our reality. The life we hate, tolerate or enjoy is dependent on the life we create for ourselves based on how we react to things in our life or, better yet, how we live if we choose to live intentionally; based on a plan or purpose that we’ve created.

I shake my head and chuckle to myself as I recall the events of the day and will probably laugh audibly in a crowd if I were to hear………. ENJOY YOUR FAMILY.

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