Ordinary

Ordinary- Def.
1. of no special quality or interest; commonplace
2. plain or undistinguished: ordinary clothes.
3. somewhat inferior or below average; mediocre.
customary; usual; normal: We plan to do the ordinary things this weekend.



The abundance of our life is made from ordinary moments.  The ordinary comes like a metronome marking time keeping some sane beat to these full days we live.   But in the beat, in the fullness, it’s the ordinary moments that can be the footing for an extraordinary life.  We must look for it because sometimes commonplace things don’t catch our attention.

I can’t plan ordinary.  It just happens. It’s like Monday morning.......... coming every seven days.  Usual.  Normal.  And like the metronome forcing a beat, ordinary forces a choice ~with every beat of the day.  Will I even get out of bed to have a little time and be ready for my kids on this ordinary day?  Will I have anything to add to their foundations in an awfully ordinary moment of training?  With my words and actions while making the bazillioneth sandwich for lunch, will I add to the security of their footing on this launching platform we call home?  Will my words really make a difference 10 years from now in this ordinary discipline moment?  I don’t know about you but the ordinary has been my sanctification but that’s for another time.

The extraordinary can come to a life if the ordinary has made room for family, creativity, conversations that might have been lost, games, tuck-ins, books, cookies, friends, meals together, hugs, rest, band-aids, hot chocolate and eternal investments.  But, again, we must be careful or we might miss it.  It’s pretty plain.

So a question I ask myself, when they leave my home, what will have been extraordinary to them?

Jeff and I listened to a podcast last weekend from Focus on the Family and Gary Thomas was talking about his book Spiritual Parenting.  He had great things to say and wise advice but it was the unplanned comment that stuck with me.  With all of his children in college now, he said he’d give $10,000 to be able to rewind time for just one weekend at home with his kids when they were 11, 9 and 7.  He was dead serious.  He missed the ordinary.

It’s the ordinary moments that can be the footing for an extraordinary life.


This night after getting back to our cabin, our day transformed into extraordinary as we watched this.......


slip into this...........


and into this..............


extraordinary....







~ My friend In a House Full of Boys, who incidentally just returned from this amazing weekend, is starting “Five on the Fifth” which means she will take a picture of all five of her boys on the fifth of each month~ all in the same frame which I am sure can prove tricky.  Each year she will have a collage of twelve pictures~ VERY cool.  So I stole my cool friend’s cool idea that I think she stole from one of her cool friends.  I made a collage of ordinary moments from 2011.

January- headed into school
February- hot chocolate at home
March- petting Aunt Adele’s horses in Soperton
April- taking a school break on a windy day
May- Mother’s Day- NOT ordinary- but I like how we are all in pajamas
June- the lake and B’s cute belly
July- Slurpees and brain freezes at 7-11 when it was 110, I am SURE
August- first day of school
September- last lake trip of summer
October- Faith in Action weekend
November- sleeping away from home
December- What could be more ordinary than “Go Fish” at Christmas!?

Comments

Sarah said…
I LOVE your collage. So great that you had those great pics without even trying :)
nikki said…
that gary thomas quote is now going to stick with me...good words to hear today....on these ordinary days. love reading your words.
Alyssa said…
Your "ordinary" is in many ways "extraordinary." Love this!

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