No, I Won't Just "Let It Go"



Don't worry, this is a staged shot
of L7 and A6.

As I continue to work as a nanny I have discovered that the sharing of adult wisdom when children are having a "discussion" of sorts could be listed at the top of the job description.  Some might refer to this simply as "refereeing". L7 and N6 are great kids who have a fun sister-brother relationship but they also have their fair and normal share of conflict.  The adults in the house are working are encouraging the kiddos to use kind words and a calm tone of voice to minimize sources and outbursts of anger.  However, we are also working on encouraging them to LET IT GO.

(Also, if you're confused about these cryptic code names being used, I explain it all here). 

In a good mood and working the camera.

For instance:

What, you came in from outside and someone else closed the garage door behind you?  Probably let it go.  (Or, you know, cry about it.  Whatever works).

Someone is walking down the stairs with you and then quickens their pace, and arrives at the bottom first?  Hmm... I would also say this is a "let it go" situation. 

Letting things go is a huge part of my marriage and my life.  It is both helpful and frustrating that I married the King of the Nobel Land of Letting Go-Ness but mostly a good thing, as he forgives faults and minor frustrations freely and easily and has a knack for moving on and not letting things get to him. 

Typically, when people talk about letting go, they are referring to things of a negative nature.  Let go of the past - it's gone.  Let go of your anger - it won't help.  Let go of that loss - try to move on. 

However, right now, I do not want to let go. 

I want to cling on to the goodness of God that has been overflowing around Ryan and I and continue to welcome it with open arms.  Here I am, God.  Please, continue this shower of blessings - You are amazing!

This concept struck me the other morning as I was reading one of the psalms.  The author wrote this now-familiar line: "Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; His love endures forever."  (Psalm 118:1, 29)

How many millions of people have said, read, or sang that line, over the course of thousands of years?  How many people can testify to the sheer truth and greatness of that statement?  God's ever-enduring love and goodness is not something we should just "get over."  Simply observing that God is good, always and forever, give thanks, and then letting go would be ridiculous.  Likewise, we should embrace this amazing truth, celebrate it, and live our lives in light of it.

I realize that my last blog post was primarily about being in the center of God's will and how amazing that feels and this post about God's goodness could come across as redundant.  But then again - how could God's love ever become redundant?  People have been singing His praises for thousands of years and it won't be stopping anytime soon.  This is the soul's natural response to such truth. 

So, I am not letting go of God's goodness to me.  I am savoring the fact that I have an amazing employer and I love going to work.  I delight in the jokes and cuddles I share with my husband each day.  I humbly adore the ways that God is molding me and humbling me as I read through Hosea and understand even more how the Israelites are just like me.  I am in true awe of how God has provided for us financially as we moved from the ever practical,  stable [and salary-earning] lives we lived in Fargo to this affluent, expensive area.  We are paying for Ryan's grad school and we aren't earning a salary and yet... it's okay.  Seriously.  I have been keeping a list of the all the things that have happened and blessed us in our finances since we moved here in August.  There are 25 items on it as of this week, 25 different ways God has intervened in our lives so that we can pay our bills, have enough to eat, etc., etc...

This short list is only the beginning of things that I have been blessed by lately.  So yes, I am basking in God's everlasting love and goodness.

I am not letting go of this.  I am giving thanks and holding on. 

How would you answer this question?

I have been hearing a lot of questions lately.  Such is the nature of working with elementary children.  Here is a sampling:

"Can you tell me a story, about me?"
"What did the nut say to the other nut?" [answer: You're nuts!]
"Why are there watermelons without seeds?"
"What would happen if you mixed a cup of something bitter, something salty, something sweet, and something sour together?"
"How old is your mom?"
"What does 'interference' mean?"
"Will we see Judas in heaven?" [I am not making this up, this topic has come up in conversation twice since I've been working there].

I have had an idea rolling around in my head for awhile to write a blog post about the importance of asking questions, and fill it up with cute and meaningful quotes and questions from the nanny family.  However, there were two significant flaws in this scenario:

1. Remembering their questions required me to actually remember their questions.
2. I  only had one thing on my mind to say about it.

I'll go ahead and let you know the one thing that I initially wanted to share and tangent my way off into another topic.  Here it is:

Asking questions is the smart thing to do.

I didn't always believe this.  In fact, I thought that smart kids (or people, as I referred to my peers once I reached the age of 12 or so) were the ones who knew enough so that they didn't need to ask questions.  Teaching in the music classroom proved that to be quite untrue.  In my classroom, I learned that the kids who are the brightest, who care the most about learning, the ones who are most likely to succeed are the one to ask questions.  They would be the ones to stop me mid-story to ask what a word meant.  They would be first to admit that something didn't make sense.  It was the not-as-smart kids who would just go along with anything and either not notice or care that something didn't make sense.

Moral of this story?  Ask questions.  Be smart.

My awesome younger brother asked me an interesting question the other day.  (Did you notice this transition into a new topic?  Smooth and flawless).  We hadn't talked on the phone in awhile, and he asked what the highlight of my month was.  I happened to have a wonderful October, and tried to pinpoint why and answer in a more succinct, less Emily-esque-spiderwebby way and was mostly successful.  I said something along the lines of I have enjoyed working full time and settling into my wonderful job, and then enjoying my weekends with my husband even more. 

While I think that is true information, I think that there's more to the "enjoyment" of this past month.  Not only have I been enjoying myself, I can confidently say that I have experienced some amazing contentment, and I believe that this contentment is directly correlated with the fact that where I am (and where Ryan and I are, as a family) right now is in the center of God's will.

Because I am not the apostle Paul and have not learned to be content in any and every circumstance, when I do get to a point of feeling contented, I try to milk it for all its worth.  I reflect on it, I praise God, I smile a lot.  I think a lot about why I'm there, or about how I got there.  I recently tried to analyze this and realized that thinking in terms of the following statement was quite nice and helpful in organizing how I am feeling and such:
 
"I know I am in the center of God's will when..."

When what?  How could I articulate this?  How could I express myself when things are going well?  How would I finish this statement?  How would you finish this statement?

I asked some friends to fill in the blank in this statement, too, and wanted to share some of the answers I gave and they gave.  I'll give you my responses first:

"I know I am in the center of God's will when...."
-My circumstances lead me to an unfamiliar or unexpected place, yet I have true contentment there
-I can see a clear need and see how I (along with my giftings/talents/whatnot) can fill it
-My heart feels lighter [I know my Myers-Briggs letters could be written as ENFP, as I am a true feeler, but please believe me when I say this is a legitimate and truly amazing feeling]
-I don't turn back, even if I'm scared and want to.

Here's how some of my friends responded:
"I know I am in the center of God's will when...."
-I have the peace that surpasses human understanding (especially when my circumstances "should" be throwing me into a panic)
-I am abounding in joy for God's love
-I see God in the little things
-I cannot help but to mention God in nearly all my conversations
-Satan attacks me
-I look back and evaluate recent (or not so recent) happenings in my life. [This friend noted that we don't always see God's will in the midst of everything, yet He is sovereign]

Isn't this a statement/question you want to be able to finish with a flourish? 

How would you answer this question? 

If you aren't in the center of God's will, would you consider trying to find a way there - or letting Him lead you there?  I feel like it is completely worth it... and have learned and re-learned that being in the center of God's will is truly the best place to be.
 

This is a great question to ask as well as a great question to answer.