52 Years Ago

It was my birthday yesterday.  Hip hip hooray!  Lots of well-wishes, blessings, messages and phone calls came my way.  The cockles of my heart were warmed.

I was born in 1960.  I always liked the fact that I was born on a nice even year like that.  It helps me keep track of my age easier.  I need all the help I can get.  You know when you're 16 and you can't imagine why old people can't remember how old they are?  The birthdays simply stack up after a while and it's harder to keep track of, that's why!  Today, I'm definitely 52 and I started to think, what was going on the month I was born?  I was the fourth child born to a rural Pennsylvania family, but what was happening in the larger world in November 1960?

Here's what I found:

 A new house cost about $16,500.  Stamps were 4 cents each.  An attendant would fill up your gas tank, wash your car windows and check your oil, all for the cost of 31 cents/gallon gasoline. A gallon of milk cost 49 cents, but it came in glass bottles with cream floating on top, that were delivered to your door by your local Milk Man. Butter was 67 cents per pound. A pack of gum cost a nickel.  You could buy ice cream in a 1/2 gallon box for 79 cents.  Minimum wage was $1.25 an hour, so those prices might not have seemed like such a bargain at the time.

"The Unsinkable Molly Brown" opened on Broadway-- the movie starring Debbie Reynolds came out 4 years later.   Elvis Presley released his recording of "Are You Lonesome Tonight."  Clark Gable died the day after he finished filming "The Misfits" with Marilyn Monroe.  Johnny Horton, famed singer (at least in our house) of "The Battle of New Orleans," died in a car crash at the age of 35. 

 Five bombs were set off in New York subway cars in October and November 1960, injuring 58 people and killing one. Dwight D. Eisenhower was President of the United States. John F. Kennedy barely beat Richard M. Nixon in the presidential election.  The popular vote for JFK was only 1/6 of one percent higher than that for Nixon.  

There was a coup attempt in South Vietnam.  Nicaragua was invaded by exiled rebels and the U.S. Navy was called in to help defeat those rebels.  Both the U.S. and the USSR were launching nuclear submarines.  The Polaris sub was described as "the world's most credible deterrent system." Perhaps the largest solar flare ever recorded disrupted communications world wide.  Syrian security forces were believed to have started a fire in a movie theater filled with 152 children.   Leftist rebels attempted a coup in Guatemala which was put down with American assistance.  Dictator Rafael Trujillo of the Dominican Republic ordered the murder of the three Mirabal sisters.  He was assassinated himself six months later.  The CIA director briefed JFK on plans to overthrow the Castro government-- later to become the problematic Bay of Pigs Invasion.  There was a crisis in the Congo.


Sammy Davis, Jr. married white Swedish actess May Britt at a time when interracial marriage was always scandalous and still illegal in some states.  

6-year-old Ruby Bridges and three other little girls were the first African-American children to attend "white" public schools in New Orleans.  

W.W. Hamilton died.  He was a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention who was forced to resign after he married his niece.   The second weather satellite was launched.  Wilt Chamberlain set the NBA record for number of rebounds (55) in a game which remained unbroken for nearly 50 years. 

 John F. Kennedy, Jr. and Amy Grant were born on the same day (the 25th). 

 And... I was born on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, my mother going into labor at a family Thanksgiving get-together.

Baby Me and my family

It's interesting to look at the total upheaval of the world then.  We like to think it was a simpler time and in many ways it was.  Yet, the world was fraught with both innovation and great danger at that time as much as it is now.  Revolutions, racial strife, atomic weapons, razor-thin election margins... these occurrences were going on then and they are going on now.  It makes me think of Ecclesiastes 1:9: " What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again;  there is nothing new under the sun."  But another thing is the same and always will be-- God's in charge.  As we are told in Hebrews 13:5, "Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you."  God is with us.  I am very glad that statement was true long before 1960, has been true in the 52 years since, and will be true forever for those who trust in Him.

New Job Title for Me?

I have been a full-time, cookie-baking, snot-wiping, tear-drying, band-aiding, puke-mopping, chauffering, face-kissing, cheek-pinching, picture-taking Stay At Home Mom for 25 years now.  That's an SAHM for those of you who like acronyms.

Here's how it happened:

My husband's probably wiping away some tears right now.  "Sunrise... sunset... swiftly fly the years..."

So, you see, I have worked myself out of a job.  (Actually, I didn't do it, they grow up whether you're ready for it or not!).  It's not that they don't need me anymore-- they do!  But not in the same way.  The job title just really doesn't fit anymore.

I started thinking about my current job description.  I no longer have to drive anyone anywhere (other than to the airport!)  I can't remember the last time I cleaned up puke (thank the Lord) and they don't really like to have their cheeks pinched.  Cookies are still good.  But my current job description is more along the lines of advice-giving, meal-making, home-managing, book-keeping, Bible-teaching, blog-writing, photography-practicing, and parent-chauffering.  Didn't you like the first one?  Sometimes people ask for my advice and sometimes I just give it out for free.

My new job title is still under construction. I just do what I do.  It's not just a job, it's an adventure.    Speaking of jobs-- I've got cookies to bake, clothes to wash and a checkbook to balance.  See ya!

Blue Cat-Eye Glasses

I have a great desire to focus.  When I was nine years old, I got my first pair of glasses because I couldn't focus.  They were blue cat-eye glasses (hey it was the 1960s and the optometrist said they would look great with my blonde hair and blue eyes.)  There's not many pictures of me in them unfortunately, because they'd be pretty funny now.

  But after a year or two, things got out of focus again and I needed a new pair.  Can you find me in this picture with my hip brown frames?

 This is a whole group of cousins from my mother's side of the family.  I am the one sporting the yellow shirt, purple pants and green belt.  Woohoo!  I would say this is around 1970 or 71.

When things are out of focus, you lose details.  Things fall through the cracks.  They get fuzzy and indistinct.  See this?  Terrible picture.  But you can still tell it's an apple at least.

I don't want to live my life that way.  I seek focus.  I want to know what's important.  Wasting time on trivialities and distractions irks me.  Therefore, I just read a book called Focus (believe it or not!) by a guy named Leo Babauta.  He's written a bunch of books and has a blog on minimalism, simplicity and that sort of thing.  He has six kids, so he's had to really work at finding simplicity.  This makes him a little more believable than some authors.  He doesn't write from a Christian perspective, but he has some valid points to make.

Some of you know that I have talked about mono-tasking (which is much easier than doing mono-tasking).  Babauta writes about it too, only he calls it single-tasking.  This is simply doing one thing at a time.  Do you know how hard it is to do that?  Of course you do!  It takes a tremendous amount of focus.  Yesterday I sat down at the computer to do some work.  Before I knew it, I was chatting with my son, texting my daughter, emailing a friend, answering the phone, and answering the door-- all at the same time!  Yesterday I allowed all these other distractions to draw my attention away.  I was fairly effective doing all these things, but I was also fairly frazzled when all was said and done.  AND I didn't get anything done on the project at hand.  Everything I was doing was good and needed to be done sometime, but I wish I had mono-tasked and saved my sanity.

Well, Mr. Babauta's lessons on focus had not taken effect with me yet.  According to him, I should have cleared my desk of everything but the ONE THING I was dealing with at the moment.  I should have turned off the ringer of my phone and ignored any incoming emails while I was online chatting.  Maybe he would forgive me for answering the door, I don't know.  All this would have certainly helped my sanity at the time.

Now fast forward to the present.  I wanted to spend time with God this morning and I wanted to create a blog.  I followed Leo's advice and this is what I did:  I cleared my kitchen table of all but the necessities of life for the time:  Bible, Kindle (it has devotionals on it), notebook, pen, coffee, grapefruit-scented candle and volume control for my mellow Celtic tunes.

 It's a wonderful dreary day outside, very conducive to contemplation.

 Now comes the hard part.  I TURNED THE RINGER OFF!  And put my phone in my pocket.  I actually have been having moments of panic about this.  What if someone needs to reach me?  Ok, I confess.  I have actually checked it a couple of times.  Some calls and texts came in but nothing that couldn't wait.  Maybe with practice I can quit being distracted by the fact that my phone is off.

For now, the scene is set.  And it works!  I have not yet checked email today because there will certainly be things in there that will distract me.  And I am blogging which is something that I want to do and never seem to get around to.
Here's the thing.  Focus is difficult.  It takes preparation, dedication, determination.  It's a fleeting and fragile thing (at least for me, so far).

But God's been trying to talk to me about my priorities, my frantic pace of life, my false guilt, my real guilt and His plan and purposes for my life.  If I don't FOCUS and listen, I'm the one who's going to miss out.  All my activity is worthless if it's not what God wants me to do.

You can stop reading here, or you can stick with me a while longer, because this is sort of 2 blogs for the price of 1 today.

God's been trying to refocus me on what He wants me to spend my time and efforts on.  Here's the work-in-progress that He's been impressing on me:

God calls me to:
--love Him, to develop and maintain my relationship with Him.  Reading His word, being quiet, listening, learning, waiting, praying.
--love other people.  I'm supposed to take care of my husband, my kids, our parents, my friends, and actually anyone I come in contact with.  By "take care of", I mean caring for them in tangible and intangible ways, offering help and encouragement as needed from me as wife, mom, friend, neighbor...
--love myself by eating right, exercising, resting and playing.
--stewardship: fulfilling my responsibilities with regard to our home and finances.

I believe God calls us all to engage in those four areas.  His Holy Spirit also gifts us each with the ability to serve Him in ways that are unique to us as individuals.  Here's what He has gifted me to do in His service to build up His body-- and activities that bring Him glory if I do them with a dedicated, joyful heart:
--study and teach His word.
--mentor and encourage women.
--do bookkeeping (yeah, seriously.  I think the actual spiritual gift is called "administration" but in me it's manifested in using Quickbooks).
--provide a haven of hospitality.

Yep, that's it.  If I FOCUS on those areas, I believe God is pleased.  Nothing else is more important.  Looking at my to-do list through the lens of God's one-of-a-kind plan for me makes even the most mundane tasks take on new importance.  When I do laundry it means I am being a good steward of our clothing, and it means that I can show love for my family in a practical way.  When I write this blog, I am actively engaging gifts which are to be used to study, teach and encourage.  I don't have to feel guilty for taking the time to sit here and ramble on about my thoughts.  I just need to pray that God uses these words to encourage or teach someone something.

Thanks, God, for helping me focus this morning!  Please continue to show me how and when to remove distractions and to move forward into your perfect plan for me.

FOCUS.

Ok, I'm ready to "turn on" the distractions now-- one-at-a-time of course!