Evaluate My Plate

I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed lately. If I'm not "momming" (which--come on--should really be an action verb) I'm working or trying to keep the house picked up and the floor decently clean enough for a crawler, then I'm trying to keep getting things how I like them in the house bit by bit with all these projects being pushed to the side.

Last Monday I did a lot of work-work (the kind I get paid for) and by Tuesday morning I was beat. I did something I don't think I've done since last November.

I put a movie on in the morning.

And sat on the floor with Tatum playing and actually watched most of it. And drank my coffee.

While it was hot.

It was a nice break.

I normally don't have the TV on during the day, and only put on a Praise Baby when someone who's short is rather fussy and I need to get something done. I don't like the idea of the TV being a babysitter and don't buy into that "it's an educational program" bull for one minute, but sometimes a girl just needs a break. God bless the makers of Praise Baby.

So what did I watch?

The Inn of the Sixth Happiness with Ingrid Bergman

Aaaaaand I realized that my life's not so busy as I think.

If you've never watched this movie, its a great one. Yes, men, it's even in color!

Its about the missionary Gladys Aylward, whom I read about when I was in 5th grade and that made me want to be a missionary in China.

That's not looking like it's going to be the plan, but it raised the bar in my mind of what one person is capable of.

This woman was deemed "unqualified" to go to China as a missionary.

So she saved up, week by week, and paid for her own ticket to take her. By train. Through Siberia. During political unrest.

Alone.

Once there she and her mentor opened an inn where they would tell the traveling mule teams stories during mealtime. Stories about Noah's ark and baby Jesus.

Through a course of events she becomes the foot inspector for the region, unbinding the feet of little girls. She began taking in children, adopting them into her life and heart. 

She walked into a prison riot unarmed and stopped it by talking to the prisoners.

And when the Japanese invaded she led over 100 kids through the mountains to safety.

One part they left out in the movie happened when she faced a fork in the road. The Japanese were coming one way, but she didn't know which road they were coming on.  It was cold, the kids were starving and she had to make a choice.

She prayed, spun around, and took the road she was pointed at. It was the higher road, and later they looked down and saw the Japanese troops on the lower road.

This gal had a lot going on.

It's a great movie and actually stays relatively close to the true life story of this remarkable woman...its on Netflix if you care to watch it.

All that to say that my plate didn't look quite as full as it did before. There was always room for one more kid in her house and one more story to tell and one more person to love on. 

So I evaluate my plate. Figure out how I can love more, do more, give more.  I've been blessed with so much, and know that because much has been given, much will be required (Luke 12:48).

But it was nice to stop for a minute and watch a movie in the middle of the day :-)

These two know how to stop and enjoy something. Like a family of mockingbirds flitting around the backyard.

Yes, Roy has paint on him.

That's fallen off my priority list...just making more room on my plate...