Halloween: my dinosaur garbed toddler grasped onto his little pumpkin bag eagerly grabbing candy to drop into it. The first holiday in the trifecta (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas) end-of-the-year -holiday-season simply and successfully completed. However, in regular year twenty-twenty fashion instead of taking relaxing breathes in between, I ‘m holding my breathe in anxious anticipation of the outcome of the Presidential election. I feel like I am choking on the pollution of perceived division and rumored corruption. Such fowl airs affects my own little maternity bubble as I feel slightly bogged down by my schedule of teaching before the sun rises, rushing through daily household chores in the never ending battle of keeping a clean home and sustaining the needs of a stubborn toddler with stinky diapers and who loves to chuck food across the kitchen...
The strange southern weather reflects my funky state- warm, cold, pleasant and rainy....
Then I recall the no-messing around James who stated: “But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind”- James 1:6
Oh how easily tossed by the stirred seas in our Nation am I! So in faith, oh Lord help my doubt I ask:
“ I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry,whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”- Philippians 4:11-14
How? How does my worrywart mind learn stillness, surrender, peace?
On our evening walk, while my son eagerly chased a garbage truck, I became enraptured by an neon pink sunset streaking across the dimming blue sky. My toddler lives in wonder, squealing at sticks and eagerly spotting airplanes. So my son’s simple delights of being present to the present with no fear of the future, shall be my remedy for the holiday blues. My son and I, a daughter of the Lord, will enjoy small daily delights at the end of 2020 as I remember:
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” -Jeremiah 29:11
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