Sitting in my baby backpack

graduation from preschool...

They have the audacity to continue to grow.  You turn away for a second to tie a shoe and the little one rolls over.  You wake up one morning to your oldest asking to wear make-up.  Don't worry.  This isn't a "carpe diem" post, moms.  I think you hear it way to often....from the little old lady at the grocery store...from everyone..."It goes so fast."  "Sleep while you can!"  "In the blink of an eye..."
It isn't that these pieces of advice aren't sound. It is true.... But the pressure to "seize every moment" causes you to do just the opposite.  You have been there. I know I have.  Overplanning the birthday party so the MOMENT is perfect.  Spending hundreds of dollars and hours on the scrapbook to document all of the perfect MOMENTS. All of that seizing ends up exhausting the socks off of you.


It is becoming more apparent that chasing "carpe diem" isn't what God was asking of me all along anyway.  Phew, right? He was asking me to put one foot in front of another on a path that was rarely lit.  It was usually dark, with turns along the way...turns that often were deceptive, "obvious" doors that were often closed...things that I was sure He wanted - like Branson's life here on earth.  Doors that opened out of nowhere - like the opportunity to do this blog.  It is almost as if "seizing the day" would have complicated His path for me all along.  
Proverbs says that there is a "way that seems right to man, but in the end leads to death".  There have been twists and turns along the way- and my way would have ended up in need of a search party. In fact, at times, it did.


So, what does that look like in real life.  How do you balance? How do you enjoy the moment, look to the future and learn from the past all in the same "blink of an eye"? 

I don't know....and I am glad.  It is this "lost" feeling that keeps me looking at the path before me...straining my eyes for glimpses of His wisdom.  Unlike really being lost, however, I am embraced in Him along the way. I am riding in the baby backpack of my Father...sometimes open-eyed and blinking, sometimes crying to walk, sometimes snuggled deep and sleeping.  Those moments are not to be seized...merely soaked in.


Release the pressure of always getting it right.  You won't.  


Remember that the path He set for you requires faith to step through puddles and leap over gorges- but that most of the time you are being carried.