We all have busy days. Just when we get one project in the air, another responsibility slips through our fingers. When busy days bring a jumble of blessings and projects, responsibilities and relationships, it’s easy to loose our focus.

What choices can we make on the busy days that empower us to thrive rather than barely survive? How can we sustain a willing heart and a cheerful spirit instead of giving into frustration and stress? What simple things that can help us to choose wholeness in our busy moments?

I’ve had some busy days lately, as I juggle multiple projects and opportunities. Multitasking makes my head spin and I’m not good at sustaining  focus in multiple directions at once. I start doing absent-minded things like trying to open the front door with the car keys and putting the milk in the cabinet. Just now, I put the stamps in the refrigerator after I paid the bills. At least I’m catching it, right?

On Your Busy Days

In a society that worships independence and productivity, we aren’t naturally wired to ask for help. No one strategy is the ultimate fix for a busy day, but one simple solution is to ask for help and team with others. Today, I am doing just that.

Meet Becky Keife, a mom who finds slivers of time to write about the treasure of the moment. Becky shows the simple choice to stop and appreciate the wonder of the moment. Taking time savor blessings wrapped up in the moment gives us time to breathe in the midst of our busy.

Discovering joy in the moment, creates energy by changing our perspective. It can make the difference between harassed and blessed. Choosing to treasure the little things can move us from frantic to flexible, enabling us to bend with grace and shoulder heavy loads lightly.

The Moments Add Up (and why you shouldn’t give up when you’re thick in the ordinary grit)

We’re eating chicken bowls after church and my six year old scootches his buns across the vinyl booth and buts up next to me, leans in and breathes. I pull out my phone and snap a selfie to remember the sweetness of a little one who wants to be near.

Later I look at the grainy photo and see how big my boy has become.

These sit-close days won’t last for long.

 *     *     *

It’s the end of the month and I’m trying to stick within our budget, which means getting creative in the pantry instead of zipping to the store. I see a can of pumpkin left from fall baking and decide that muffins are probably in order.

Little boys love to mix and measure, take turns calling out ingredients and stirring with the wire whisk and wooden spoon. (Okay, they actually dislike sharing in the most grumblesome way and voice their disgruntled objections at every turn that isn’t theirs. I may have lost my cool with voice raised in matched grouchiness.)

But in the end there are warm muffins to satisfy hungry tummies, a beach towel made picnic spot, and sunshine. There are boys still in jammies with sneakered feet. There is family. There is love.

*     *     *

The moments add up.

It’s the small moments of daily grit that add up to a life marked by faithfulness. Beauty. Love.

And it all matters. Every moment matters.

Maybe you feel like you’re not living a big dream or fighting a big fight. Maybe you feel like you’re not making a meaningful difference or even a small dent.

Maybe you just feel small.

Maybe you feel like your days are strung together with a blurry ribbon and you can’t see how it all matters because you’re just hanging on by an unraveling thread.

What I want you to hear today, deep down in your weary bones and questioning soul, is that the moments matter.

• Capturing beauty glimmer by glimmer.
• Mustering thanks through the mundane.
• Not giving up in the thick of the grit.

It. All. Matters.

You matter.

You can read the rest of this post and see more of Becky’s beautiful photos right here. Please encourage Becky with a comment when you visit her blog.

Tweetable:

Capture beauty and muster thanks.It. All. Matters.

Perspective enables us to carry heavy loads with grace.

Sharing encouragement with #RaRaLinkUp and Holley Gerth.