“You Catch My Drift?” is just one of the many sayings and actions that annoy my teenagers. Who am I kidding; my mere presence in a room is enough to get an eye roll. Yes friends, this is where we are in parenting at the moment. But sadly for my children, I have years of working with teenagers through teaching and leading youth groups. Therefore this behavior from them only encourages me to be weirder, sillier, and dance a little more ridiculously.
Wouldn’t it be nice to treat all roadblocks this way? If every time your bank account looks scary, your boss gives you another project, your kid gets sick or your friend or spouse ignores you the simple answer could be “dance it out.” Now if you are a Grey’s Anatomy fan you are probably picturing Meredith and Christina right now (the good ole days) just dancing it out. It seemed to work for them, maybe they are onto something!
Most of us instead of dancing through it, we drift.
The entire month of December I essentially disappeared. I posted one blog, posted my scheduled Forever A Momma features, and spent the rest of December drifting. Cookie making, decorations, moving the dang elf, seeing Christmas lights and all the Christmas requirements of being a mom was done, but I was drifting away. I know I should love Christmas for what it symbolizes, but Christmas is just HARD. I had so many plans for what Christmas morning would be in our family and have never been able to do it. I believe we have finally found our Christmas tradition and I believe it is going to make the season a bit easier in the years to come. We get away, just us and both times we have done this I have received a sign that Alex is with us too.
One of the days of our trip to the Florida Keys, we went snorkeling. Now we had snorkeled before in a turtle rescue center in the Grand Caymans so I was excited to repeat that adventure. But as we drove 40 minutes on a high speed boat away from the shore I realized this adventure was not a “safe” man made lagoon to experience fish and turtle encounters.
We were going to be in the middle of the ocean and jumping off a boat to the blue water below!
My heart began to flutter as one by one my kids jumped in. The water was a bit choppy and it was difficult to keep track of all my kids. I tried to enjoy the experience while also navigating the little one from waves and tracking the older two. It wasn’t until the kids got tired and retreated to the boat to watch the fish from above that I was able to place my face into the water and relax. It was spectacular to see the ocean and reef in this way. Eventually I picked my head up to get my bearings and make sure I wasn’t too close to the boat.
In my relaxed state, I had allowed the ocean to carry me significantly away.
I had drifted away. Now in a small panic I had to work against the waves to get back.
I am writing this week because it is HARD to come back. Some of you reading this may have drifted away from family and friends and the realization hit you smack in the face over the holidays. Some of you may have drifted from your morals, dreams, or purpose and you are fighting to come back or even contemplating if it is even worth it. Some of you have drifted far from the Source and God wants you to know He is still here.
What is difficult about drifting is it is so easy to get away, but it is work to get back.
For me personally in the December drift I was enjoying my family time (needed) but I was also enjoying my headspace and time back. It was a selfish “me” problem and as 2022 hit God was like, “are you ready to let me back in?” A small part of my purpose is writing these blogs. I don’t know why or for how long, but I know God said, “you aren’t done yet. Come on back.”
Hebrews 2:2 We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.
In this verse they are referring to what was spoken in Hebrews chapter 1 which is essentially our Savior Jesus Christ. For many of those who are reading this, you already know about Jesus and more than likely you have accepted him into your heart. But this is the problem with the drift, it requires more than knowing.
At this point you may be wondering if I made it back to the boat. The good news is even though I had drifted out in the ocean I had two essentials: a life preserver and fins. In our everyday life we have that too! We have our life preserver, Jesus. He came to save you and me and is always there to hold us above the water. But with only the life preserver you aren’t going to make it back to the boat. You are going to have to do some work. On your own it will be challenging and close to impossible, but with fins (the Bible) you can navigate the choppy waters and make it back.
Twenty twenty-two may not start off easy if you have drifted, but the work to get back to the boat will be worth it!
If you are looking for a group to help you navigate the choppy waters after the drift be sure to check out the private Facebook Page: Hope in Healing Hearts
