For those of you who link up with Friday Favorite Things, it is still here. The link up and button are on the bottom of the post. I’d invite you to also consider looking through the series that I’m in the midst of writing called 10 Days of Intentional Parenting. Day 1 – Awake, Day 2 – Heart, Day 3 – See, Day 4 – Listen, and now today’s post incorporating favorites and recording life.
Remember. Record. That’s our theme today.
Every Friday, on Finding Joy, I host a link-up called Friday Favorite Things. Here’s a bit of history — it all started last year in the midst of a very challenging time. My Samuel, who is now two, had just been diagnosed with Celiac Disease and we were in and out of the hospital, and frankly it was frightening – I didn’t know what the next year, or month, or week, or even day would hold. One night, as I was rocking my Samuel in our room in Children’s Hospital I made a resolution.
I became determined to become thankful. Grateful. Right in the midst of intense crisis.
It forced me as a parent, and as a wife, a friend, a sister, a friend, and as a writer to begin to challenge myself to see beautiful and blessed moments, gifts from God {blessed be His name in all}, in the midst of hardship. Then, on Fridays I began recording some of those moments, those little bits of today and of the week on my blog. Some were simple – like being thankful for coffee, and some were deep {like being grateful for Samuel not being sick for a month} – but in them all they were a recognizing of the gift, the blessing, of today.
And that helped me, as a mother, learn to be more intentional.
Instead of letting life pass by in the hurried blur that society pushes it at I instead became diligent about slowing myself down enough so that I could be awake, and my heart would be aware, and I would see the world, and then listen to my children. And in all of that I began to create a very profound and beautiful record of life.
I discovered that the little moments in life bring the most joy.
Our children need us in those little moments. In spinning the spinner on a game, and answering “yes, it’s cool,” and listening to a poem with broken verse, and showing them the new buds on a tree, and making a chocolate cake when we should have been doing math. Those are real life heart forever moments.
These little moments matter, moms. They matter.
So today, in keeping up with my tradition, my 56 week tradition of writing out my favorite things from the week, I shared with you some pictures of favorite moments — Samuel reading, Elijah’s hand, Gracie’s cake. Just a sample of joy found in being a mom. These memories, the favorites from this week, are woven together by the thread of ten minutes – the ten minutes where I intentionally set aside time to BE with my children.
If you are a blogger, you are more than welcome to write your own list of favorite things and then link them here. This link is available every Friday {feel free to click on the Friday Favorite label to see how I’ve written them in the past – since this week is in the middle of a series this one is a bit more wordy than normal}. If you’re at home, and a reader and you’re wondering how to incorporate this favorite things idea, today’s download includes space for you to write down and record ten moments from the week that you were blessed to share with your children along with several other journal prompts.
Today’s family activity involves you sitting with your children talking about their favorite moments from the week. You’ve already begun to discover their hearts – starting with ten minutes of time, to having them share what they love about others, to letting them take pictures of what is important and finally to yesterday intentionally listening to them. Today is a day to put this together.
Make sure to come back next week – I’ll be writing five more posts for the 10 Days of Intentional Parenting series. They’ll be about the days where everything goes crazy, and the value of name, and thoughts on media, and more. I’ve been so blessed by the rallying around this series and the multitude of you that desires to be there and awake with your children. This is a tremendous blessing! And, if you’re new and would like to receive finding joy in your inbox simply click subscribe to finding joy by email. Okay, finally, the Friday Favorite Things link up is below!
7 comments
this is a great series, rach. you are doing such a great job of getting your heart across. i heart your heart! i saw that crazy cool fast photo thing on hannah’s blog and now here, too?!!! this is awesome! you two are amazing. love ya!
i wasn’t aware of the whole story behind “friday favorites” – thanks for sharing.
great series – i’ll have to check the other posts out!
Thanks as always for the lovely post. It is the “little” moments that we will cherish always, not just the momentous occasions.
Love in Him, Laurie
“I discovered that the little moments in life bring the most joy.”
This is so true & continues even when they are teenagers. Thanks for the reminder.
My link was accepted yesterday, but I don’t see it…?
The title was “My Week in Pictures” – thanks for checking, Rachel!
I am enjoying this series so much, Rachel…finally finding time to catch up and print out the prompts…but I want to work through this 🙂 Thank you for all of your hard work in putting it all together.