Generation NeXt Parenting

Life's Little Interruptions by Gina Conroy

Today's guest blogger is Gina Conroy. She's a wonderful person and my friend! You can read Gina's blog here.

Life's Little Interruptions By Gina Conroy

Several months ago I signed up for a Bible Study with some home schooling friends. I really didn’t feel like committing to another night out of the home especially since my family was already overscheduled with activities, but my husband encouraged me to go, and I knew I needed something to help me get into the Word and be accountable.

I didn’t know the Bible study was on hearing the voice of God.

Halfway through the study God spoke loud and clear. I needed to give up what I loved most - working on my novel, so I could concentrate on the people I loved most - my family. Though God had been dealing with me for months, I didn’t want to believe it was His voice whispering to me about skewed priorities. When I ignored his whispers, He hit me hard.

Like what happened to Saul on the road to Damascus, God decided to knock me off my horse. Yet, instead of blinding me as He did with Saul, the scales fell from my eyes.

The topic of discussion at our Bible study that week had been sold out hunger for God. The author Pricilla Shirer shared these words.

“More and more the Lord is showing me what I consider interruptions are often divine distractions designed to reveal His plans for me…”

Pricilla Shirer wrote about her young son tugging on her leg, trying to get her attention while she sat engrossed in writing the Bible study. “Ignoring this interruption ignores God’s attempt to move me away from my plan for my day to His.”

Talk about an “ah-ha” moment! It was then that I realized I was treating my children as interruptions in my life and distractions from my writing career. I had become so focused on what I thought my calling from God was that I’d been missing His divine plan for my life as a mother.

When I decided to home school almost two years ago I felt that was an interruption in my life. The time I thought I would have to write now had to be allocated to schooling. Still I was determined to make it work even if it meant staying up past midnight and “winging it” through my lessons the following day. During a quick break for lunch, I’d steal away to the computer and get on email only to stay longer than I had planned. My three-year-old would often interrupt what I was doing, and I’d either shoo her away or get irritated at the interruption. If I lingered too long on the computer I knew chaos would erupt in the rooms below, but somehow I couldn’t pull myself away in time to prevent the inevitable.

Pricilla goes on to write “…we all become frustrated when seemingly meaningless interruptions interfere with plans we have for our careers, families, finances, or ministries. Are we missing God’s interventions as He seeks to divert us to His will?”

Was I missing God’s intervention as He sought to divert me to His will? I thought home schooling was an interruption in my life, but maybe it wasn’t. Maybe it was God’s divine intervention to steer me back on the path He had already designed for me.

Pricilla said, “sometimes when our plans are interrupted, we are staring God’s direction in the face. We must not push them aside to complete what we feel is most important.”

Though I still struggle through my home schooling days, and the desire to work on my novel has not gone away, I'm able to enjoy my children more. The other day when my three-year-old climbed up on my lap when I was on the computer, I didn't shoo her away. Without hesitation I pushed away from the computer and embraced God's little interruption in my life.

posted by Tricia Goyer @ 8:02 AM