Choosing People over Things

Today I have a companion during my writing time.  She has lovely hair that sticks out every which way, footie pajamas and is humming while she colors in her Minnie Mouse coloring book at the other end of the table.  I try to blog while she is sleeping but obviously, that doesn't always happen.

Again I am reminded that I get to CHOOSE.

I get to CHOOSE whether I am irritated that my child is interrupting "my" time or whether I am amused by her antics and patient with her, even when she colors on the wall.  (  It's time for Plan B.  No more crayons;  we switch to Cheerios instead).

Day after day we get to choose to put people over things.

When I was a little girl I had a dollhouse.  It had a family of dolls that came with it as well as some "extra" dolls.  It had lots of furniture.  I spent hours playing with that dollhouse!  I loved it.

Every doll had a name and a personality.  They had certain ways of interacting with each other.

I also had a best friend.

Guess what?  Best Friend came over one day and we took the dollhouse out on the lawn.  We start to play and it was a disaster.  I could not get past the fact that Best Friend was changing the way that the characters were "supposed" to act.

"She would never say that!"

"He doesn't like spaghetti.  The mother never cooks spaghetti!"

Needless to say, I don't have many memories of playing with that dollhouse with anybody else.

I remember my little sister saying to me one time "Why do we always have to take walks where you want to go?"

I was a kid, yes.  And I was acting like a child.  Immature.  Selfish.  The grown-up thing is to consider other people and live your life in such a way that everyone is treated well.  You must take care of yourself, yes.  But not to the point that you are treating others like they are inconveniences that make you want to roll your eyes and stomp around the kitchen as you slave over their breakfast or some other mundane task. . .

I'm not that kid anymore.  Now I am a mother and a wife and I have a choice.  Every day I get to choose to be immature and selfish by putting my wants and desires first.  I can also choose to "put them first" but do it with a very poor attitude . . .and that isn't putting them first at all.   It doesn't benefit me, either.

So I must be intentional.  I must, on purpose, choose to be generous with my smiles and my patience. I must choose to create the habits that will allow me to carve out time to be relaxed, to figure out how to best manage my resources.  It's all about choosing people over things.

And when I am making a soup, or loading or unloading the dishwasher and I get interrupted by a pair of sticky hands or a math question . . .I must choose to pause, look into the eyes of my beloved ones and listen.

It took me a long time to realize that my automatic thought processes were not always "okay."  My mom had already drilled into me that I couldn't just blurt out every thought I had, nor could I just impulsively DO whatever I wanted to do.  But for some reason it took me a very long time to realize that my thought life had to be intentional, too.

I must be intentional in how I view people and relationships if I want that area of my life to thrive.

That is why I choose to put people over things.

That is how I love.

That is what it's really all about.

With Love from Me to You,

Go Forth and Do,

~  Jennifer