“Keeping it Real – How do we do the things we want to do?”

Friday morning, April . . .  No, it’s May. Wow. May what????? I wouldn’t know as my calendar on the family board is still on April. And speaking of family board, I was staring at it this morning while enjoying some eggs and biscuits that Maya made and a great cup of coffee (Starbucks French Roast). If you have read Post on thewholepeach.com, you know that our family board holds the conversation. Whatever Language card we are talking about for the week, the pictures and words get hung on the family board above our kitchen table to help us remember the conversation and keep it going throughout the week. I am a mother that needs lots of help remembering, because the crazy is always right around the corner. The busy is always demanding my time, and the urgent screams louder than my priorities at times.

Well, as I look at the family board this morning, I see a mess! Check it out.

 

First, there is the calendar still reading April.

Some of the pictures hanging are from the God card #8 – Easter. Was that the last worthwhile conversation we had? How many weeks ago was Easter???? Where have the weeks gone? I know we have had some conversations since then. I just can’t see them on this board. Condemnation is quick to begin talking in my head. It goes something like this: “See, you have let your schedule get the best of you again. You don’t make time for the things you say are most important. How can you not make time to have a conversation and draw some pictures? How hard can that be?” And so on. Sigh . . . I usually give condemnation my ear, and it is difficult to re-direct my mind and heart to the truth.

But once I get there, it goes like this: “Father, you know my heart. You also know our days. Help Ron and I keep the “big rocks” first. Help me see the way to weave the important in our details. Help me keep it simple and real, and help the Hagan clan grow more in love with you each week. I don’t want to make our conversations with you rigid and another “to do” on our list. I want to experience your “life to the full” as you intend. I am asking for it for us.”

So, I keep looking at the board.There is a really cool picture Carson made from an Under Armor sticker he got. He added the words: “under the armor of God.” He made it last week before a baseball tournament encouraged to do so by his friend Payton who had made one of his own. Now that is cool business and a great reminder of community and the power of encouraging each other in the way we should go. Baseball is also one of the most important things in Carson’s world right now, and he is showing his dependence on a strength greater than him in this endeavor. This is a treasure!

There is also the picture again drawn by Carson of a mountain and rainbow that we actually used in our conversation this week as we were talking about God card #12 – Eyes and Ears. It was so cool to have that picture hanging on the board when we read Psalm 40:1-2.

“I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.”

Father had weaved a picture into our conversation this week before we ever even knew it. And this is how it works. Even in our presumed failure, Father is weaving. And your heart, your desire to bring up your children in the way they should go will always be honored by Father. He wants it more than you do. And he is preparing the way to walk; just keep walking. Keep asking for it. Keep having the conversations with him and with your children, because here is another picture I want you to remember.

Though we “drew” no pictures this week, the Bible has been in the midst of us opened to verses reminding us that God sees us and listens to us (God card #12). We have talked about the verses and made connections with the words and our details. Maya, Ada and Carson have seen a mom and dad trying to work it out themselves and going to the Bible and prayer for the help they need. They have seen us fail this week. I have been impatient, demanding and unreasonable in my expectations. But we have come back to the table each day and began again. This will be the story. So be encouraged. There are a lot of words and ideas on this Whole Peach site. And you come already with a lot of words and ideas. But it is time spent in conversation with Father and your family with the Bible in the midst of you working it out together weaving the truth in your details, this is the prize! And perhaps even without me scripting it, the family board after all reveals the conversation. Though crazy and unplanned and a bit messy, we are just “keeping it real” with his life (John 10:10) right in the midst of us!

bless all of you and your conversations today.