Spending Time with Family - Time Out of the Loop

Time Out of the Loop

Sue Bradford Edwards

edwardsj113x111 Last Sunday I found out that I didn’t have a meeting after all. I had miscalculated – our meeting is next Sunday. Yay!

Afternoons and evenings off are a gift from God. Sure, my dyslexic inability to read a calendar contributed, but I recognize free time for what it is. A great-big, wonderful gift.

This particular gift meant that I got to go home with my family and have lunch with friends.

Three boys and four adults crowded around our dining room table for a simple meal of sandwiches, chips and fruit. Then the kids ran off and we held the table down, chatting about work and family and life.

Because we lingered at the table, we got to see the huge hawk that has been hanging out in our back yard.

What do you do when you have a moment free? We live in a time that seems busier and more rushed than ever before and, in many ways, it is our own doing.

Seriously.

We are, after all, the ones who try to pack so much into our daily lives. We have to take the quickest route to work so that we can get more, more, more done and rush home to nuke a quick meal and then run errands, cart the kids to some activity, or go to an activity of our own. We get home after dark and then try to catch up on an hour or so of the TV programming that we feel guilty about recording but not watching.

Sure, life in the Edward’s household can get busy. This week we have an evening at church, an orthodontist appointment, choir, the church rummage sale, and a scouting event. Yikes.

But no one person is doing all of these things and not all weeks are like this. This past week, we had three evenings in a row at home, then we had scouts and choir, and then another evening off. Not bad at all, but we have these quiet weeks because I guard our time at home. Even if we aren’t all doing one thing, we are all here and pop in on each other “just to see what you’re doing.”

We say no to some activities and we say no to some technology. Anything that is going to be a huge money or time suck probably won’t find space here. Sure, we have a Wii, but we don’t have satellite, PDAs, Blackberries, iPhones, or Tivo. We pick and choose. Mostly, we say no.

I felt a bit funny about some of our decisions until I started reading Amish Peace: Simple Wisdom for a Complicated World. In it, Suzanne Woods Fisher discusses how the Amish evaluate each bit of new technology, weighing how helpful it is vs if it will pull them away from family and God.

What a great way to evaluate all the stuff that we see advertised.

Thy Will

Is it Your will
for me to bring this
into my home,
into my life,
into my family?
Will it enable us to live
fuller lives,
to be closer to each other,
to draw closer to you?
Lend me your wisdom,
as I struggle
with this decision.