Be Present

Happy Friday, Friends!

I hope and trust this post finds you all having a great day as a glorious new day begins to dawn in my Sweet Home Alabama! I am so excited for this day! It is going to be a great day...I can just feel it! :)

This morning I want to do two things; 1) I want to make us all aware of something that was truly shocking to me when I read it, and 2) I want to challenge us all to live this day, this life, fully present.

I started a new book titled, Win The Day: 7 Daily Habits to Help You Stress Less & Accomplish More by Mark Batterson. The excerpt I am going to share comes from the Introduction...yeah, pretty sure this is gonna be a great book! :)

"According to psychologists Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert, the average person spends 46.9 percent of their time thinking about something other than what they're doing in the present moment. We're half-present half the time, which means we're half-alive."

Does that strike you as profoundly as it does me?! I don't want to be present, truly present, half the time and I surely don't want to be half-alive! And, sadly, having read this earlier this week I have become acutely aware this week of the times when I am doing something and thinking about something else.

I want to challenge us all to become fully alive. Let's intentionally choose to live fully present in every moment. Easy? No. Possible? I honestly don't know. I can tell you this, for me I have found it will be nearly impossible without the help of the Lord...seriously! :)

Now, when I am talking about being fully present, I am not going to the "Don't text and drive"...too easy of an example and we all know the dangers associated with doing it. Let's go here instead...

• To intentionally spend time reading the Bible and praying and being fully present in those moments. You know one of the areas I have noticed I struggle the most this week? Prayer time! I will be praying and all the sudden I find myself thinking about or rehearsing a conversation I am going to have at work. It happens so seamlessly and all of the sudden I am no longer praying but rather trying to solve some issue at work. Chasing squirrels!
• To be fully present when your spouse or partner is talking to you. To look them in the eye, to give them your complete attention and to be fully present in that moment. No squirrel chasing!
• How about the kids? When they yell, "Mom!" or "Dad!" for the 100th time...to turn, look at them and to give them your full, undivided attention. To the parents of young children; I totally get how this can get so tiring and frustrating...every one of us, if we are honest, has been there. I will simply tell you, as the Dad of mostly grown kids, those are sweet words that will soon be gone, leaving a profound silence. We can't stop time and truth be told, we really don't want time to stop. We want them to learn, grow, and become all they are capable of becoming which means they will eventually leave us. We can however live each of those moments fully by being fully present. A critically important choice with incredibly significant consequences. I think of the quote by Catherine M. Wallace, "Listen earnestly to anything your children want to tell you, no matter what. If you don't listen eagerly to the little stuff when they are little, they won't tell you the big stuff when they are big, because to them all of it has always been the big stuff." Give your children and yourself the gift of your full presence...you will not regret it.
• The people before you - friends, co-workers, the people at the store. Again, to look them in the eye, to ignore the buzzing of your phone, and give them the greatest gift of all - your full, undivided attention. We all want to be known, seen, and heard. How drastically different would our world be if we all were truly present with one another when we were together? If we really valued and appreciated everyone?

Look, I know this is not easy and none of us will achieve perfection. Let's not get caught up in what we cannot do and please, let's not fight for our inadequacies. Instead lets simply strive to be intentional, to do the best we can, with God's help, every day. While we cannot stop time nor make any moment last forever, we can live each and every moment more fully.

Before closing I want to share another excerpt from the book. I found this incredibly profound as well and I just have to share with you all! :)

"The Lord's Prayer is three-dimensional - it helps us nullify past mistakes, navigate present circumstances, and negotiate future challenges. Jesus prayed past tense: "Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors." You cannot change the past, but you can leverage its lessons. Then you've got to pull a Frozen and let it go. Jesus prayed future tense: "Lead us not into temptation." You cannot control the future, but you can make predecisions today that will pay dividends tomorrow. Finally, Jesus prayed present tense: "Give us this day our daily bread." We want God to provide more so we can trust Him less, but He loves us too much to do that. God will never give us more than we can steward, which is one reason time is divided into days. All we have to do is live in the way He intended - in day-tight compartments.

Do you remember the expiration date on manna? One day. How about the deadline on anger? Sundown. When are God's mercies made new? Every morning. How often are we told to take up our crosses? Daily. And when are we told to rejoice and be glad? Today! The twenty-four-hour rule is everywhere you look! In fact, it's as old s day one.

There was even and there was morning, the first day."

Pretty profound! Let's live this day fully present!

Please don't hesitate to contact me if there is ever anything I can do for you or your family. I will always help you any way I can. You can reach me at kevin@whatwillyourinfluencebe.blogspot.com.

Have a great day, a wonderful weekend, please cherish your precious families, and please stay well! :)

Kev