So the days are nearing where Sprout will show his or her face. We are anxiously waiting. Soon. Very soon we will be holding our little bundle of joy. And let me tell you, it’s getting harder and harder to be patient. The end is so much more nerve wracking than the beginning. You sit, waiting, thinking, “Any day now. It could be any day now.” What’s this baby going to look like, is it going to be a boy or a girl? Who knew it would be harder to wait to answer that question when we have days left rather than when we had months left? The questions going through our head and the anticipation for this gift begin to take over your thoughts. Everything else seems trite.
At church this weekend, the Pastor brought up an interesting question. Are you living a trite or profound life? Well, what does that mean? Staring down the birth of your first child really puts things into perspective. At least for me it does. It’s not about whether the laundry was completely done today or were all the chores completed? It’s not about whether you became the top employee at the office today. It becomes about nurturing a young life who will depend on you for EVERYTHING. Do you ever stop to think about how incredible it is that you wake up every morning? Someone didn’t have that luxury today. Or have you ever thought about how you stand on your own two feet with both your legs functioning without even thinking about it? Someone hasn’t been able to do that since they were born. Someone else lost lost that ability in a tragic accident. Have you thought about the fact that you don’t worry about whether your child will have a seizure through the night? Some of our dear friends don’t have that luxury tonight. Maybe you’ve never thought about how your 6 year old daughter will respond to surgery to remove a tumor from her stomach. Many of you have read Britt Merrick’s testimony about how they just got on the other side of that question regarding their daughter and her battle with cancer.
So when asked the question by our Pastor, do you live a trite life or a profound life, I began to think which one I lived. Another way to put it, do you live a busy life or a life concerned with faith, love, family and humanity? Or do you desire a comfortable life or a life concerned with the struggles in the world? I was humbled to answer a trite life. I desired to be comfortable, that is until he defined that as desiring a life that allows you to be a little lazy and content with the discontent around you. I want to live a profound life. If you worry about the trivial, if your day is filled with moving from one task to another, if you’ve forgotten to sit with your family and enjoy who they are individually, you’re lost in a trite life. If your end all be all is how many e-mails you responded to at work rather than how much love you showed each person you care about, you’re lost in the trite life. I’d like to live a profound life. A life where I get the day to day accomplished, work to my best ability, but LOVE like there’s no tomorrow. I want to give my family my best, not the left overs. I want to wake up and be thankful that I did. I want to appreciate that I can walk freely and say what I want to say when I want to say it. I want to simply be thankful. I want to be joyful in the midst of every circumstance. Of course, I may not be happy or like what hand I’ve been dealt, but I want to choose to be joyful. If there’s not enough money in the bank, I can still be joyful that I have a husband who loves me for who I am and a child on the way. If one of my loved ones is ill, I want to choose to be joyful that I have a loved one to care about. Of course, this won’t be the easy road to take. But who said the profound was meant to be easy…I know it will be more rewarding.
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