CINDY TRANE CHRISTESON -- The Moral of the Story

“God did not create hurry.”

-- Finnish Proverb

Are you still stuffed from Thanksgiving, but find yourself already

stressing about stocking stuffers? And gifts. And wrapping. And

decorations. And cooking. And cleaning. And finances. And family. And

friends. And rushing. And repeating all of the above. And exhaustion.

This is the perfect time of year to think about slowing down.

Yes, that sentence says what you thought, but it probably doesn’t

compute because your mental computer is busy cranking up to overdrive.

The season of busyness is here, or as my friend Pete refers to it, the

“holidaze” are here. But I don’t want to be in a daze when they are over,

and like you, I want the holidays to be less stressful and more

meaningful -- to be less of a blur and more of a blessing.

Unfortunately though, my to-do lists have already taken on lives of

their own and seem to be multiplying right before my eyes.

What to do? I asked God to guide me, and the first thing that came to

mind was a recent driving trip. That seemed odd until I realized that I

learned a great lesson about the freedom that can come from limits on

that trip.

It happened when I drove with my daughter, Kelly, to Northern

California a few months ago. Not only was it the start of a new school

year for her, it was the beginning of a new engine for our car. We were

told to treat the engine kindly and never exceed the speed limit.

Neither of us are speed demons, but somehow having such clearly

defined limits gave us freedom and simplified our driving trip.

That may sound strange to some, and it was a bit of a surprise to us

as well. But we didn’t have to wonder about speeding up to pass someone

and there was no second-guessing which was the better lane. We knew our

limits, and we were content to stay in the slower lanes.

I have to admit, it was odd being passed by big semitrucks, but we got

used to it. We sang along with compact discs, we talked, we ate pretzels.

We read aloud to each other, laughed together and finished most of a

crossword puzzle.

I’m not sure we would have done all those things if we were intent on

getting to the college in the quickest time possible. The drive took

longer than normal, but we were both more relaxed than we recalled being

after doing the drive other times.

Sticking to limits is much harder, though, when it comes to the pace

of our days than the speed of our cars. But I think that was God’s

message to me. Limits can lead to freedom and fulfillment in the holidays

too.

God is not the god of hurry, but of hope. He is not the god of

rushing, but of reaching out to others. He is not the god of

accomplishments, but of relationships.

I’ve decided to let Him be the god of my to-do lists too, and have

turned them over to Him for editing. This isn’t easy for me, but with

God’s help, I’ll try to focus less on what I want to do and more on who

God wants me to be.

And you can quote me on that.

* CINDY TRANE CHRISTESON is a Newport Beach resident who speaks

frequently to parenting groups. She may be reached via e-mail at o7

[email protected] or through the mail at P.O. Box 6140-No. 505,

Newport Beach, CA 92658.