Stop: Collaborate: and Listen

Yes, I'm back with a brand new addition... (get it, you know you want to laugh)

Life has been pretty nutty lately. Lots and Lots of change, did I say lots? Yes LOTS!

Holden has been all over the place. He thinks he's four now and wants to do everything by him self and everything I'm doing. If I had a dime for every time he has poured a cup of water down the front of him trying to drink from my cup, I would have about a dollar...

He's also trying to drop a nap, run for president, and carry shoes all over the house. Btw anyone have any idea why he's in love with carrying shoes? Any insight on that would be very helpful!

With all this craziness, I feel like I've just been in survival mode. I was getting all nice and comfy in that thought. "We're just surviving right now, so it doesn't matter what's messy, what's not in order, whats not planned. We can just get a frozen pizza and call it a night."

Don't you just love when you get all comfy and then get kicked.. Thanks God, love it when you do that! This is what He's been laying on my heart (or beating me over the head with).

Don't Survive, Thrive!

Can I start by saying my first thought was "um, no thanks! maybe next month? year? when things calm down and I have my footing then we'll thrive".
My next thought, "get your rear end off that couch." (yeah, not my own thought if you could guess...)

So that's what the Pate family is going with this season... Thrive!
I love having a motto, a game plan, a list for all my list, so I can get excited about getting behind this!

Here's the game plan, and the challenge...

Stop:
Stop doing things that are a waste of time. Stop running out of the house to go do, just for the sake of doing! It says in Proverbs 39

We are merely moving shadows,
and all our busy rushing ends in nothing.
We heap up wealth,
not knowing who will spend it.
And so, Lord, where do I put my hope?

My only hope is in you.

I don't know about you but, I don't want to be a shadow, running to be running, rushing to the end just to be rushing! So we are stopping. We're taking things back to the smallest denominator. Which leads us to.... Collaborate.

Collaborate:

What is God saying to Chris and I? What does His word say? How often do we even check in with each other to see what He's saying to each other? I don't know about ya'll but, Chris and I do talk, a lot (if you know my hubby, your totally shaking your head in agreement! If you don't he's a chatter and I love it! He could get a tree to talk back to him! He was the best at recruiting girls to my small group!)

But how often are our conversations goal orientated? How often do we say "tomorrow we'll sit down and talk about what God is saying to us." how often do we even ask each other about our quite times, our hearts, thoughts for our family?

Its like we just start going about our days, knowing we're both talking to God, moving towards a direction but how often do we check to see if we're on the same page. I just assume Chris is doing his thing, and we all know what assuming does...

For now on, we're collaborating. We will have a Pate Family Meeting, minus the little pate (till he get's older). We'll go over everything, what our quite times have been like, what we want to do as a family, what our budget looks like, what our giving and volunteering looks like, what should we be starting- stopping- keeping on with.

Listen:

1. to concentrate on hearing something

2. to take heed; pay attention

There is a big difference in Hearing and Listening, and I feel we tend to confuse the two. We can hear all day long, it doesn't take any effort for us to hear something. Its just a natural part of who we are. But, to Listen... That takes something from us to do, it takes effort, and most of the time a reaction. We can hear a bird chirp but, if we listen for the bird we enjoy the chirping. We can hear God but, if we LISTEN for Him we pay attention to what He is saying and we act on it.

That's what were going to try harder to do. Not just hear but, listen. Search out what He is saying. For me its looks like this:

What does God say about being a women- Proverbs 31, Titus 2:3-5
About trusting Him- Proverbs 3:5
About Money- Proverbs 3:9-10
About Marriage- Ephesians 5:21-30

There's plenty more, just Google it! What does the bible say about ___________. What ever your dealing with.

Well ladies, and maybe a gentleman....
That's the plan. Stop, Collaborate, and Listen.
I hope you can remember those in that order, it might be tricky....

But, I challenge you to do the same!