A typical day for me and Kate looks a little bit like this. Wake up, eat breakfast, get dressed, pack up and head out the door. We go to work (she goes with me most of the time), to the library, grocery shopping, play dates, etc. When we get home it is time to make dinner, eat dinner, clean up after dinner, sweep the floor, do a load of laundry, bath, pick up the house, and get ready for bed.
This probably sounds very familiar to most moms of little ones. I hate to admit that a lot of the time I can get too focused on all of those tasks and not take time to really engage with Kate. I spend more time trying to get her out of my way than taking time to play with her and do what she wants to do. I can easily feel like all I do in a day is survive motherhood, not engage and thrive in it.
I think that we often live our entire lives like this - merely surviving and not engaging with the realities around us and with the purpose God has given us. It is no secret that the world is full of suffering, poverty, war, violence, etc. The most recent act of unspeakable violence and meaningless death took place in an elementary school - something so sad and difficult to deal with that it is tempting to turn away, ignore it, and wish it never happened.
I recently read in Richard Stearns book The Hole in our Gospel about what God expects of us. He says, "The spread of the 'kingdom of God' was to be carried out on earth by His church.... Jesus' followers were not to sit idly and await His return; they were to strike out boldly as the advance guards in a revolution that will only be completed up on His return....We are not to give up on the world, nor retreat from it--just the opposite. We are to reclaim and redeem the world for Christ's kingdom."
What I'm saying is that in both parenting and living, we are called to more than just surviving from sun up to sun down. We are called to face the problems, the hurts, the suffering, and the temper tantrums and requests to play head on and engage in them - thriving, not surviving.
