the morrow.

alright, here's the thing.

say i make myself a grilled cheese sandwich and i'm really enjoying it. then say my husband comes out of the kitchen with a bowl of cereal. now i want what he has.

that's my thing, only with life-plans. i want to try on every lifestyle (excepting the obviously destructive). i hear of a couple retiring on a boat, traveling the world, and suddenly that's what i want someday. later i see a blog about a family living in a big city and enjoying the downtown scene and instantly my plans change. then i might meet someone who who lives in the suburbs and owns chickens and i decide that our life lacks clucking.

i've never really thought of myself as envious since my mind change represents a personal detour caused by admiration and hope of emulation rather than the covetous question, "why them and not me?" this week though, over and over, i've felt inspired to put my priorities in order and to make my plan. map my dream. so that i won't be tossed on the trend-waves.

duke and i sat, pen in hand, and dreamed together. we dreamed of a cozy home where every guest feels welcome. we longed together for financial security. we agreed that we'd like to travel. but mostly we hoped mutually for our family relationships to become unbreakable through the coming years. quite simply we want love and faith and for our children to have love and faith.

as we broke those goals into smaller tasks for our daily lives we plotted ourselves, realizing our apparent position on the path to our desires. much of what we do each day is leading us where we want to be. we committed to confidently continue our routine of family prayer and scripture study. of keeping our home clean and warm and safe. of expressing love for one another and striving to keep always a spirit of kindness. we also added a few items to our agendas. we want to be early-birds and to make time each day to meditate on the marvels of God. we want to show deeper reverence for the divine gifts we've been given.

we set out to make all sorts plans but the process taught us that we don't really need that many. we live life as it's unfolded to us, always acknowledging Father's guiding hand. the real trick is simply avoiding distractions that would prevent us from following our pattern of consistently nurturing our family in body and spirit.

suddenly i feel light. as if the burdens of the world have melted. the burdens of trendiness. of fashion. of seeking to be unique or important or to stand out in the eyes of others.

the strange thing is that as i think less about what the world has to offer, the more i feel its possibilities opening. i give up wanting to "have it all" and suddenly i feel as if i already do.


Oh, Heavenly Father. I am so thankful for the way Thou hast first given us our family and then labored to guide us to a shared joy.

"Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even [a king] in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself."

-Matthew 6: 25-34

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