I read this post at Holy Experience the other day. It struck a chord with me. A deep chord. Since our little life bump last month, we have been letting things slide quite a bit. I guess it is understandable considering the potential 'huge-ness' of the situation but now that the worst is over, it is time to pick ourselves up and brush off the dust from bad habits. The problem was where to start? There were so many things that we had let go by the wayside, how do we gather everything back? Ann's post gave me some ideas of how to do just that.
Ann's post is about a day well lived and how to know if you have, indeed, done just that. She has 7 areas or rungs of a ladder, if you will, that, if you have these 7 areas present in your day, then you have lived the day well. I really like this idea. I also like her 7 rungs. I am going to shamelessly take these rungs and apply them to our own family so that we can get back into the game of life.
Here are the 7 rungs of a well-lived day:
1) Listening: did we start our day with listening to Jesus today? Did we spend time with Him and His Word? Did we take His Word and place them deep in our heart to have armor for the day?
2) Love: did we love Jesus by loving others? Were we kind to those around us or did we snap back with impatience?
3) Labor: Who did we serve today? A good day consists of hard work. What kind of work did we do today?
4) Loveliness: What did we see, what did we hear, what did we read that brought beauty to our souls?
5) Literature: What did we discover in good books today?
6) Language: How did we speak today?
7) Logic: How did we scaffold into new ideas and understanding today?
Ann goes into more detail with these rungs so I encourage you to pop over there and read the entire post.
I have been thinking about how to tie accountabiliy into these rungs. Since cancer sauntered into our lives, we haven't been having many meals together, especially since my surgery. I still can't sit on a chair, so meals at the table have gone by the wayside. I was thinking, though, that the key to all of this is to get back to the table and let this be the setting for our discussions about how our day went according to the 7 rungs. This could be the foundation for some really good discussions. This is something that we have been missing as of late.
I am comforted by these 7 rungs. All is not lost. We just need to keep climbing the ladder.