Greetings Parents,
When the priority list of "To Do's" grows longer than the minutes I have in a day, there is a little (OK, LOT) of stress that starts to build. How can these all be accomplished in the manner in which they should be accomplished? At times I think how much simpler life was "in the old days" when there were fewer "opportunities" for people and thus fewer demands on our time.
I suspect that someone from that era might see it a little differently, with objections varying depending on the time and place of the "old days." Frontier life and farm life might have had fewer demands outside of managing the homestead, but the demands were more physically demanding and required more time than many of us apply to individual tasks today. Modern conveniences relieved the physical demands and the time required, but a trade-off was that more income was needed to afford the conveniences and now more time is needed outside the home. Families work less together on basic household tasks and work independently more often at varying tasks and activities specific to each person.
Working together as a family to care for farm animals, prepare food, repair a barn, or clean clothes has some appeal when we've had a few weeks of sharing only brief moments actually in the same room talking with one another and not focused on other duties (school or employment work brought home, social media requests for attention, scheduling upcoming events, etc.). It seems a simpler time when family relationships were strengthened by shared work necessary for the entire family. The need for everyone's contribution helped everyone feel needed and "community spirit" was instilled first in the family. How ideal! Yet every earthly ideal has a down-side, and as we "look back" we see the high mortality rate of people as they worked hard and faced injury and illness with fewer means of recovery.
I come to the point where it seems God might be pointing me back to the now and how to make today be what He wants, what he knows is best for us. I'm sure there were always projects people wanted to accomplsih "in the old days" that had to take a back seat to other priorities. Even if not, today is what we have and if we focus on one task at a time, God will see to the rest. Wishing for what someone else has or had tends to obscure the downsides and elevate only the positives. I much prefer a hot shower to cold water drawn from a creek and a flushing toilet to an outhouse! Someone else might seem to be living the dream, but really no one is doing so until we are past this life and embraced in the love of God in heaven. For now, I need to focus on one task and then the next until the day is done, be grateful for what I accomplished and grateful for what God accomplishes without me. Tomorrow we'll start with what He leaves for me after He works all night.
Embrace those little ones tight and may God bless you and your families abundantly!
-- Linda Bader, St. Thomas More