Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Wanna See My Baby?


It gives me great pleasure to finish something and see the immediate results of the finishing. You know when you mow the yard and the results are immediate with every step? I really like that. Vacuuming is like that too. Erasing a chalk board. Pressure washing the back porch. Being pregnant and then having the baby. Immediate results. Nice.

There’s something very satisfying to setting out a path or set goals and accomplishing them. As you may have guessed, I am a list maker. I like to check things off the list, indicating a task completed. I like the short term finishes and the long term plans too.

Short term or long term, it takes discipline, time invested, and commitment.

Recently I heard a brand new adult (just turned 18) say that his childhood was a good one, complete, satisfying. (Some words my own, but you get the picture). He was ready to cross over into adulthood and take on the changes and new responsibilities that come with it. There’s pleasure in the finishing, some trepidation about the future, but no regrets.

Living without regret requires daily decisions … Actually, moment-by-moment decisions. It requires making choices and thinking about how they affect your future in 10 minutes, in 10 days, in 10 months and 10 years. On purpose we need to move through our days and weeks as if every decision we make affects our future in a significant way. Because they do! Your habits today will shape who you are tomorrow and next year and 10 years from now. These decisions affect what your family becomes… tomorrow and when your children graduate from high school. These daily decisions affect your outcome at every level of your life.

Babies are cute, sweet, and innocent. A blank page really. When they turn 18, become adults, with no regret as parents, we need to be able to again say, “Wanna see my baby now?” And knowing that with God’s help, His wisdom, you made the choices that enable you to not look back, but look ahead. Satisfied.