Today, we are thrilled to welcome a guest post by Kim from Garden Tenders.
There is nothing like a quilt to make you feel loved and
comforted. All the pieces of the
colorful blanket loving fitted together; each stitch a labor of love. Some quilts are arranged neatly with a set
pattern but the ones I love the most are the crazy quilts. They’re pieces of life, in all sorts of
shapes, sizes , and colors that are only matched by a wildflower meadow patched
and pieced by God. Crazy quilts are fitted together with a hope
and a prayer. It reminds me of
motherhood.
No one ever said it would be easy, in fact I remember my own
mother telling me it would be hard sometimes; but well worth the effort. Nearly five years into my own career in
Mommyville I can begin to see what she means.
Some days are lessons in patience and it’s only by God’s love that we
seem to make it through and other days the pieces all have matching sides with
no odd ball angles or slices taken out.
Those days make the other days a little easier to bear, so we piece on.
Part of the key for my family is to accept the crazy days as
beautiful in themselves. I know this can
be easier said than done, but when I accomplish this we sure have better
days. I remind myself that God made
valleys, craggy cliffs, winding rivers, and jagged peaks; when He was done He
said it was all good. Not just the
fields of wildflowers and mountain lakes were called good, but everything was
good. Besides, even the wildflower
fields have stones in them.
You need to stock your sewing kit with a few things as you
piece this quilt of life together.
First, you need a strong support system.
You and your spouse need to be on the same page. If you aren’t there, get there. You need to agree on how you will educate and
discipline your children. If you both
have similar goals in mind those crazy patterned, uneven days will fit together
better. Two working on the puzzle piece
makes for light work. There is nothing
is worse than fighting over a piece of a puzzle and where it should fit in.
When this happens, no one wins and the piece may never find a way to fit
in.
Secondly, you need faith.
You really need to have a reliance on God, not just sometimes, but all
the time. There is someone in charge and
it doesn’t have to be you putting your finger in the cake. Just like a cake that is constantly bumped
and poked, your plans will fail when they are not based on something outside of
your own visions. As you piece this
crazy quilt called life you need to remember that God is the pattern maker and
He knew the piece you are fitting before it was crafted. He never said it would be easy, for nothing
worthwhile is come by easily. He uses
the difficult lessons to refine us.
While rejoicing may be difficult during those bad times, remembering
that they serve some purpose helps us to keep going forward. I find the purpose is generally revealed
before too much time has passed.
In addition you must have a willingness to fail. Well, you don’t really fail, you change. You need to be adaptable. One day all your quilt pieces will be straight
and have identical sides and the next you may find that you need to change up
and your methods of fitting the pieces together have to change. Prayer helps more than you can imagine. If nothing more than it’s God’s way of giving
you quite time to listen for Him. He hates
competing for your attention between the TV, computer, the never ending to do
list…. In my life I have learned that
when I neglect listening to Him when he is trying to speak to me, that He MAKES
me make the time. It’s much better to
listen early on than after we have fouled things up beyond easily mending the
damage we caused, from not listening.
God enjoys the crazy quilts of life. Take a deep breath and a few minutes to enjoy
the one you have been given. It really
is beautiful.
Happy tending gentle friends,
Kim
Kim is a wife, mom, friend, part of a homeschool family, garden tender, and a fur mommy. She blogs at http://
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