Happy Monday Wildflowers!
How are you this week?
It has been my goal in writing posts for this blog to unpack what whimsy looks like lived out and fleshed out. A quest I have desired to venture on if you will. Living life childlike and full of wonder and delight – this concept draws me in.
What does it actually mean to wake up and live a life of delight and whimsy? I am a homeschooling mum of four children, I live on a property, have a bunch of animals and responsibilities. I have a husband, friends, family and community. I have separate commitments I have made both seasonally and long term. Even on the daily just to feed, clothe, educate, keep house, spiritually guide, care for our animals and maintain our property, show up for relationships and to attempt to do it all well can close in on me sometimes – without adding extra things that break and need fixing, outside needs and commitments, health problems, and all the unexpected things life throws our way.
With all of the needs and requirements just to exist, living a life of whimsy can feel a little out of reach.
Having a small break over our wedding anniversary weekend gave me time to pray and wrestle with God over life things I was struggling with. Things that were heavy and draining. Things that I needed renewed vision for. I was a little (to put it mildly) frustrated at life and God and pleaded for answers.
And as the Awesome, Gift giving, Creator God He is. Answers came.
No lightning bolts.
Just some little, what I like to call, God nudges.
Each morning, seeking Him. Asking for inspiration of how to do the day well. Pressing for inspiring ideas to do with my children. Giving the day, with all of its limitations, over to God.
And I followed the God nudges.
The days were far from perfect. But I had vision, and spark. Awareness and childlike joy. Expectant.
There’s something almost magical when you follow God nudges and see and feel His presence with you throughout the day. Maybe this is the essence of whimsy.
I’d like to challenge you to do the same. To wake up and take that time to lean in to God. Give your problems to Him and ask Him to work them out for you. To ask for His Spirit in you, His presence to sustain you. And for inspiration for your day. And to gently go with the flow of it.
I have found that things I have previously thought would drain my energy, have brought me life.
And even on the hard days – which I have – and it’s just not working: Acceptance with joy. Letting go of my expectations and surrendering to the gifts that God brings even here. However small.
Another step on my whimsy quest.
How about you? How have you lived out whimsy this week?
With wildflower whimsy,
Steph xo
P.S. Two quotes for this week!
“I believe that if we understand that we have an amazing capacity to be excellent, hardworking, bright, authoritative, and influential because we are crafted in the very image of God. We will always be striving, in a positive way, to become all that He created us to be, in order to fulfill our potential in life.” – Sally Clarkson
“So you see, imagination needs moodling – long, inefficient, happy idling, dawdling and puttering.” – Brena Ueland
This week I’ve been making up little morning baskets for my children each day. Adding random things depending on the day such a small treat, a few seeds to plant, ideas for the day, paints, notes or cards to write or make… whatever I feel the God nudge for. It’s been fun to add a bit of whimsy for myself and them. I even made my own on one of the days and managed to write two postcards to some very old friends I haven’t stayed in touch with and planted a bunch of seeds I’d been meaning to get to. (Can I just say how fun it is to tuck seeds all over the place in gardens, under trees, around other plants – and have beautiful gifts for yourself a couple of months after as they poke their little seedling heads through the ground and produce food or bloom bright. Highly recommend!). Another day we got up early and op shopped for clothes for my beautiful sister, brother-in-law, and her kids who moved back closer from a much colder climate – they needed some warmer weather clothes. My kids each had a little budget and picked a child to shop for and it was such fun! We also had the warmth of friendship in so many ways this week due to not having an agenda for our days and trusting them to Jesus.
One of the days I felt really strongly to defrost sausages which I had in the freezer for an outing we have in a week. I pushed that aside as silly as I knew what I needed them for. Turns out friends our children had spontaneously invited met us late at a dam and we, with ‘hotmesspitality’ in mind [this concept is from a book called ‘Counterweights’ by Shannan Martin], invited them back to our home for dinner. I needed those sausages! God knew the whole time. It gave me childlike pleasure inside just knowing that God has got us, and He sees the past, present and future – and knows what’s coming and cares for us in all of it. What an amazing God we serve!
So many fun things this week that I wouldn’t have done had I not been open to God nudges.
I think we have so much more capacity than we give ourselves credit for when we let go of the excess burdens we are carrying and follow God’s whimsy prompts.
Sending so much love,
Steph xo
Leave a Reply