FIVE NOTEWORTHY LESSONS from the Mogollon Rim

Although there were many more, God revealed FIVE noteworthy lessons this past Labor Day Weekend while staying in our friends’ home up on the Mogollon Rim. (Such a gift to me as a single mom on a tight budget.)

View from the deck

The time for us as a family was significant — far more than the sum of the weekend’s collective parts.

Ping Pong Tournaments

Daughter being contemplative with Daisy

Coloring together

Day-to-day in our sweet town, our family is pretty much together 24/7 (up until about 2 months ago when my oldest teen began working 20-25 hours per week and playing football for a local high school).

We’re homeschoolers, after all.

Even so, being *away* together with new surroundings, exploring, and relaxing changed it up for us and opened the door to a much-needed collective exhale.

Our time together blessed us corporately and individually.

What I learned this weekend:

1. Bible study time is so much easier when a gentle breeze is blowing through majestic pine trees for as far as the eye can see and when unique birds land on the nearby branches and pause long enough for me to soak in their beauty.

Devotions on the deck

2. My kids are good friends. All six of them. They enjoy forging shared memories.

Sunset Crater wildflowers and wild children

3. Having a big family does not mean we need to have a lot of stuff. Lots of stuff breeds chaos. While up in the log house, our family of 7 did quite well with place settings and utensils for eight, along with one pot and one skillet.

4. Keeping THE MAIN THING the main thing is harder when non-essentials clamor for our attention.

5. While actively fostering, my focus was on babies and toddlers (rightly so). For 15+ years. Yet, somewhere along the line, I gave up more about me than maybe I should have. I’m ready to get it back.

Let the re-ordering of our family priorities begin!

Each of these FIVE noteworthy lessons are changing how I live my days down here in the hot Valley of the Sun.

Here’s one action I took when we arrived home: I purged my kitchen cabinets of all by 8 place settings, all plastic cups (my youngest are old enough to use glass), and all storage containers that don’t have lids or aren’t easily stacked.

Here’s example: Daily sorting question I ask myself, “Is this item essential to worshiping God, teaching my children, raising them to be contributing adults, or reflective of who God has made me?”

If yes: keep.
If no: donate.

One last example: I hosted a family meeting with all the children. I explained what God had shown me this past weekend and then asked them to start thinking about what is most important to them. Soon they will determine what they want to sell or donate.

Simplify.

Even a home with a big family doesn’t have to be chaotic. Four days away proved that to be true.

These actions are ongoing and the lessons learned are still emerging.

More to come on how we are demonstrating we want to keep THE MAIN THING the main thing!

*** Dear Reader, share with me what ways you have learned to reset family priorities?

Seeds of Faith

“… for God is not a God of confusion but of peace…”
1 Corinthians 14:33

Copyright © 2016 Deborah Rice, PeaPodFamilyPress

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