How to keep peace and joy when you are in a crazy season
I’ve been reminded today about how taxing the business of life can be on our emotions, mood, and well being. For months I kept thinking that I’m just about to the end of the craziness. I’d tell myself that once we get through the end of the school year I’ll be able to prep food for homemade dinners. Once bible camp is over I’ll be able to spend time in the word everyday. I’ve learned that the crazy doesn’t end. I’m in a season of life where crazy is life. So what in the world do I do…?
Change the way I think
Instead of feeling overwhelmed and inadequate, I need to retrain my brain to think about this season differently. To keep peace and joy when you are in a crazy season I’ve developed some practical steps. These have have helped me and I’m hoping they will help you.
- Have a meeting with myself. I like to put on my calendar a time I set aside to have a meeting with just me, myself, and I. This is a time when I won’t have any distractions and can focus (HA! Good luck with that, am I right??). But I try.
- Have a good planner. When I say good, I do not mean that it needs to be some fancy expensive thing with stickers and frills and all the distractions. A better word might be a functional planner. You want something that you will actually use and get some peace of mind with. A planner that will add time to your day because you’ve streamlined your week. When you use a functional planner you can see how much time you actually have and can prioritize much more effectively. I’ve had seasons where I like the fancier planners, but I’ve also had seasons where my brain can only handle a basic weekly planner like this one.
- Wake up before the kids. This one is HUGE for me. If I wake up before the kids I can spend time with Jesus, get my head straight, and do some home management before the craziness begins. The peace this brings to my mornings truly starts my day off on the right foot. It is so precious to me. I completely let my morning routine go during this past school year. I honestly do not know how I functioned… but I will tell you that I did NOT function well.
What I’ve learned from my first year of having a kid in full-time school
Prep in the summer!!! I found it near impossible to do any kind of snack prep or dinner prep during the school year. We ended up buying a lot of store bought snacks and lowered our meal standards a ton. I was always feeling guilty and like I just wanted measuring up to what I wanted for my family. I’m determined to do much more prepping this summer so I can feel good about what I’m feeding my kids. I’ll be posting my summer prep for the school year soon!
Give yourself lots of grace. And then give a little more. I would get so bummed out at how my schedule was just not coming together. Upset that I didn’t have time to even try to put a schedule together. This led to higher grocery bills, less nutritional food, and a burned out mama. God often reminded me that this is just a season and that He is with me through all of it. He’s using my circumstances to shape and mold me. This would give me hope that I would get better. I would learn how to do the things I wanted for my family better. I’m still very far away from where I’d like to be, but thank you Jesus I’m not where I was! Can I get an amen??!!
Put the first things first. I did not do a good job of this and boy was I reminded so many times of it. Why is it so hard to do what we know we should? There was such an obvious difference in the days that I put God first and the days I did not. My goal next year is to do much, much better.
The difference between doing life with God vs. for God
I was listening to a podcast today that talked about how we can be doing all the right things, giving to Godly causes, going to church, attending bible conferences, volunteering at church, bible studies, etc. and still be missing Jesus. The women in the podcast talked about how they can get exhausted, burned out, and overwhelmed. Even when they are doing all the “good christian” things. This is because they are doing things in their own strength for God, not with God. We try and do right for God everyday, but somehow the distractions creep in and we forget why we are doing things. Our auto pilot kicks in and we just survive the days. We are not doing life with God. We don’t invite Him in at all.
I’ve found myself in this type of rat-race this past year, and honestly I’m still there. Having that meeting with myself allows me to take a hard look at what I have going on in my life and why I am doing them. Am I volunteering because I feel like that’s what God wants me to do, or because I feel guilty if I don’t? Am I participating in ALLLLL the school things because it’s the right thing to do, or because I have a bad case of FOMO (fear of missing out). I want to do all the things and show up for my kids and community but sometimes we just need a good hard boundary. That boundary is sometimes saying no.
I’ve also learned that some days are just busy. There’s nothing I can do about it and there is no boundry I can put up. On these day especially, but truly on all days, I need to invite God into my day. Pray that the Holy Spirit will guide me and lead me. That everything I do will honor Him. That I will be building up His kingdom and not tearing it down with my words and actions.
Putting first things first
When we can put God first every single day, we can break these chains of busy, stressed out days. We will be more aware of how God is moving in and around us and see truth more clearly. We’ll be wiser in our decisions to do or not to do things in our days. I believe we’ll also be more attentive to when God interrupts our plans for His work and be more obedient to Him.
Doing these things and putting the first things first, we bring peace back to our days and joy back to our families. I don’t know about you, but a peaceful and joyful day sounds like exactly what I want for my family.
