Day one, My Confession

Today marks too many to count days in stay at home circumstances. I ,like so many others vacillate between finding the joy of having nothing I have to do and the burden of feeling like there are so many things I should be doing! So, lets talk about the dreaded shoulds of our lives.

Once upon a time, my mentor had a saying, ” don’t’ should your life away.” She had many variations of this, including, …” don’t should on yourself”, ” don’t should on others,” you get the point.

So today, yes, there are many things I could should myself to do. There are many things that need to be done in this global crisis it literally boggles my mind, and yet where to start?

Instead of wondering around in my haze, what I have found is that simple task of asking myself what I really WANT to do is most helpful. I wanted to help bake cookies for the local Nursing home. I wanted to run an errand for my mother. I wanted to take a nap, and I wanted to write a daily devotional for the church I attend. Those are things that I wanted to do ,and completed them with joy. Ahhh, the spark has hit! With JOY!

Many places in the in the Bible it talks about doing good for others, and I usually find this a helpful statement in times of my lull attitude. These days however, though there are so many things I could do, I find myself having to think harder about what things I want to do that would in turn be helpful to others.

SO today, i’m offering up to you, that in times of lull attitudes, and shoulding on yourself, what makes you find joy? WHAT things might you want to do that in turn might bring joy to others? Or, what stands in your way? Lets help each other figure this out and be on our way past the shoulds.