Find your ocean. Feed your people.

Ironic - and pitiful - truth: This weekend, I spent two full nights wide awake because I was worried about Lifa. (Broken elbow story here!) The ironic part about that is I was up hoping and praying we could keep him comfortable, meet his needs, and give him an extra boost of love and care while he recovers. But during the day, when the rest of the humans were awake, I was so exhausted that I didn’t want to prepare meals because I couldn’t bear the sound of any of them chewing. I’m not proud of this. I’m just being honest. 

These statements were said over the weekend at my house: Lifa: “If we run out of coffee, the world is over.” Chris: “Mom needs to sleep or we all break.”

I worry when I’m low on fuel: relationships, rest, Godly encouragement, and a little bit of fresh air. Worrying doesn’t add value to anyone. It’s always better to be able to tolerate your humans chewing than to spend a night tossing and turning for them.  For me, it always comes back to thinking about what I can do instead of what I can’t. 

I can’t help Lifa by worrying about him, but I can support him in many creative ways while he recovers. I can’t take the boys to the beach for an outing, but I can show them the ocean. 

This weekend, I loaded up a fussy boy and a broken one into the car. We turned on the radio and drove to the ocean - just to see it from the car. We rolled down the windows as we drove along Beach Road. I deep-gulped ocean air like it was the only available oxygen on the planet. Lifa scream-talked about how he couldn’t smell the ocean, and Benjamin just made incredibly loud mouth noises. It’s fine.

Here’s the point: There’s a lot more that you can do than you can’t. There’s a lot more for you than against you. I know that because Jesus died so you could live. And not just have life, but have it to the full. 

God is for you. If God is for you, who can be against you? 

Find your ocean. Find some truths to deep-gulp today if you’re running low on fuel. And then feed your people. One day you’ll miss those mouth noises. (So I’ve heard.)

Moments before we left for the ocean. Lifa lying down in boredom and defeat in the grass with Benjamin using his face as a drum set - and Kraven the pup staring at them like they are the animals in the yard. Time to go!