Nonfrantic Woman

"Her questions were honest and unassuming, her demeanor kind, her laugh delightfully loud, her paperwork messy, but her focus clear. She stayed focused on the task at hand. She wasn't encumbered with a thousand other things pulling at her. She didn't try to multitask too much. She wasn't a slave to her cell phone. She wasn't running late or running from one thing to the next. She said no to everything else pulling at her so she could say yes to the story."

"If you want people to use such great words to describe you, think about the decision you are making. How are they leading people to describe you?"

"Great descriptions are birthed from great decisions. The decisions we make, make the lives we live. If we want to live better, we've got to decide better. Yes and No. The two most powerful words."

Recently I was told, (by a good friend) I bicker with my husband. Ugh. Not a fun thing to hear....let me define it for you:

• bick·er
• argue: to argue in a bad-tempered way about something unimportant 

That sounds like a complement right? Ouch! I don't want to be known for bickering! Really?? Wow what a legacy Jan. Yikes. But it was a good reality check and one I'm trying to work through. I have been reading The Best Yes by Lysa Terkeurst. The quotes come from that book; which is really worth the read by the way.
I just love what these quotes have to say and in regards to the Nonfrantic Woman. I have been reflecting on this bickering comment and I just love what she said in the first quote. I do all those stated things at different times...and the "isn't a slave to her phone" part....wow....never heard it referred to as "being a slave to your phone"....YIKES, but isn't that what happens?! I was reminded of my favorite verse Genesis 4:7. ....."sin is crouching at your door, it desires to have you, but you must rule over it." It doesn't rule over me, I rule over it! And again, an example I do not want my kids seeing...a mom who is a slave to her phone?? No.

Next quote....if we want to live better, we've got to decide better.......so I have to decide to not bicker. I have to decide to not be a slave to my phone. I have to decide to eat well. I have to decide to exercise. I have to decide to press into what God has for me...even when I'm tired.
The Nonfrantic Woman.
I want to be her. I want to be poised, humble, unassuming, kind....nonfrantic. I want my words to count--every single one of them that comes from my lips. I want them to mean something, be filled with love, not be words that are just a clanging gong.

"I brought to each of those encounters my presence and my love, my Best Yes. And one Best Yes after another took me places I've have never had the privilege to go if I hadn't dared to look at what was right in front of me."

.....She brought her presence...something I am all too familiar with these days that I do not have. With the pace in which life rolls, and having 3 kids under the age of 5 in the house all day....you don't have much time to be "present," to be fully attentive.....you are multitasking to an insane degree, you are trying to keep afloat, dishes done, laundry done.....defusing fights.....and in that I have found that my phone provides a temporary escape....which in turn makes me a slave to it, as I long for that escape.....oh what a vicious little cycle.

Time to stop. Refocus. Put my eyes on Jesus, and as I become present with him; my frantic, bickering,  multitasking overloaded self, will become.....Nonfrantic.