What If?<\/span><\/strong><\/em>
\n
\nI know. I know. You aren\u2019t supposed to ask yourself the \u201cwhat if\u201d questions. They can create too much margin for fear or discouragement or blah, blah, blah. <\/span>
\n
\n <\/span>Whatev\u2019s.<\/span>
\n
\nI need routine and the pressure of a deadline to persist and produce. This week I don\u2019t have any of that. We are coming off the start of summer break from school. Our first two weeks of summer \u201cbreak\u201d were rushed to finish remodeling projects, deep clean the majority of our home and plan for a family gathering. We worked our tails off, on top of two weeks of daily trips to swim lessons. At the end of those two weeks, I felt accomplished and like I was a real human. \u201cHigh fives, Kati! You are rockin\u2019 this domestic goddess thang!\u201d<\/span>
\n
\nThis week is a different story. Far too much time to be introspective and doze off during my morning quiet times. I feel super disconnected from Abba, and generally sub par on absolutely everything I am involved in. Just keepin\u2019 it real. <\/span>
\n
\nSo this morning I willed myself off the couch to start yet another load of stinky summer laundry. While pairing the ENDLESS pile of socks, I began to ask the \u201cwhat if\u2019s?\u201d. <\/span>
\n
\nWhat if<\/em> there wasn\u2019t anyone washing these nasty stanky clothes?<\/span>
\n
\nWhat if<\/em> no one tried to offer 1-2 nutritionally sound meals\/day to this family?<\/span>
\n
\nWhat if<\/em> the man of the house didn\u2019t have food in his lunch box, clean clothes to wear or someone to make the phone calls and run the errands he can\u2019t get too, while working his two jobs?<\/span>
\n
\nWhat if<\/em> no one asked him heart questions, when he would prefer to just work and silence the deep stuff?<\/span>
\n
\nWhat if<\/em> no one hugged them? Cried with them? LAUGHED with them?<\/span>
\n
\nWhat if<\/em> no one saw their deep parts and prayed for God\u2019s presence and truth to fill them, even while they slept? <\/span>
\n
\nWhat if<\/em> no one taught them the value of honesty and kindness?<\/span>
\n
\nWhat if<\/em> they never learned to grow and prepare foods?<\/span>
\n
\nWhat if<\/em> they never learned routine cleaning skills, let alone how to tackle deep cleaning projects?<\/span>
\n
\nWhat if<\/em> no one helped them gather the supplies and push through a craft\/decor idea that they imagined?<\/span>
\n
\nWhat if<\/em> no one was seeing the ache in their hearts for friendships and creating opportunities for them to connect with others? <\/span>
\n
\nWhat if\u2026? <\/span><\/em>
\n
\nWhat if\u2026? <\/span><\/em>
\n
\nWhat if\u2026?<\/span><\/em>
\n
\nThe syrupy-sweet spiritual answer is that Jesus fills all the holes and redeems all the yuck and makes good out of all the bad. Truth!<\/span>
\n
\nBut, what if<\/em>? What if,<\/em> today, He is choosing to fill the holes, redeem the yuck and make good out of bad\u2026.thru a mere human?<\/span>
\n
\nWhat if<\/em> today, He is doing this through me?<\/span>
\n
\nToday we have plans. Plans to picnic with friends, rain or shine. <\/span>Plans to play.<\/span>
\n
\nI am not good at playing. I need to PRODUCE something to be valuable. Ugh – the lies!!!<\/span>
\n
\nBut upon asking the \u201cwhat if\u2019s\u201d<\/em>, I have but one plan for this day\u2026 <\/span>
\n
\nTo be present and thankful. <\/span>
\n
\nThat\u2019s it!<\/span>
\n
\nI hope you have some playtime in your future. I hope you can ask the \u201cwhat if\u2019s\u201d and see the value in your role, whatever it is. <\/span>
\n
\nWhat if<\/em> today, YOU can choose presence and thankfulness and know that your value is not in what you DO, but in WHOSE you are.<\/span><\/p>\n

We are in this together, friends! <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What If? I know. I know. You aren\u2019t supposed to ask yourself the \u201cwhat if\u201d questions. They can create too much margin for fear or discouragement or blah, blah, blah.  Whatev\u2019s. I need routine and the pressure of a deadline to persist and produce. This week I don\u2019t have any of that. We are coming […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":13174,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,38,50,24,25,26,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-discipline","category-fear","category-life","category-marriage","category-motherhood","category-parenting","category-truth"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/lifeamplified.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/beach-sand-footprints_925x.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9yowO-3qt","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeamplified.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeamplified.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeamplified.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeamplified.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeamplified.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13173"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/lifeamplified.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13179,"href":"https:\/\/lifeamplified.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13173\/revisions\/13179"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeamplified.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeamplified.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeamplified.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeamplified.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}