Author:
Helen
Yesterday, I was talking with one of my sons about friends who are planning to enter into the mission field soon. I was sharing my excitement for their decision when my son interrupted me. “Will we be moving to another country, too?” His voice reflected anxiety, not excitement, worry clouding his face. “I don’t know,” I told him. “I don’t know if that will be God’s call for us. But whether he is calling us to the mission field or not, he is still calling for us to be missionaries wherever we are.” “So, we don’t have to move anytime soon?” he pressed. “That would be really hard.” I could completely relate to his feelings. I am a homebody, someone…
Author:
Helen
A few days ago, I had about 90 minutes, maybe 2 solid hours if I was lucky, to do as I pleased. My youngest son, who requires the most hands-on care, was blissfully asleep. My 6-year-old was out of the house and my eldest was reading, which he can do for an entire afternoon when given the opportunity. So what would I do with this unusual bounty of time? My mind was spinning with how I could use it, what task I should attack, whether I could get most of it done in two hours. Before this point, I had been cleaning the kitchen from the morning aftermath, then doing non-stop loads of laundry, then feeding my kids lunch, then…
Author:
Helen
A quick post tonight, because I am busy de-cluttering the re-cluttered areas of my house in preparation for guests tomorrow! A few more things I have learned from this process: The process of de-junking one’s life is a discipline just like any other. It requires a sacrifice of time, leisure, and in my case, a personal preference to do anything else other than neatening our living areas. In this regard, it has been a good experience during Lent, a time in which experiencing some sort of sacrifice feels appropriate leading up to Holy Week. But we’ve hit a plateau. We’re barely managing to maintain that small area of space we have de-cluttered; progressing any further will require a significant investment of…
Author:
Helen
We are a little over a week into Lent, and in this post I wanted to address some of the lessons I have begun to learn as we have been pursuing this particular choice of discipline. And, let me also answer some questions, such as, “How exactly is this working for you? Did you go through an entire decluttering of the house first?” Uh, no. That would have proven nearly fatal for us to try to execute, such is the extent of clutter in our house. In fact, the enormity of the task has proven in the past to be the cause of my not addressing it; it just seemed too hopeless to make much of a dent in all…
