Make it your goal to live a quiet life...

 Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands.

1 Thessalonians 4:11

I have really been leaning into this verse lately. I have very few memories of my grandmother speaking her opinion out loud yet she was the centre and head of the family through living by example.

I cannot find the artist, if you know them please tell me

When I say "It's been one of those weeks" I am not complaining about my wonderful life. My home, children, marriage and work are wonderful. What I am referring to is the small, seemingly endless one thing after another worldly problems that pop up and suck away energy and contentment.

Things in your own home like one of the children figuring out how to get netflix or something on an old device they were using as a calculator and binging an entire season of some useless show. This child then wandered into the kitchen at 9.30pm asking for help with an assignment due the next day when they "resurfaced" and realised the time.

Piles of mess were a problem this week. "I'm bored" rang out from a little someone who was literally standing on a puzzle amongst piles of dolls, paper and pencils with a DVD playing in the background.

Outside of our home there are so many "big" problems I cannot do anything about but still effect me. I will continue to try and set the example that the key to happiness does not lie in shopping and university loans. 

That things sold as freedom are not free, they cost your peace, contentment and self worth.

My grandmother left this Earth before she saw me become a wife and mother living out her lessons the best I can. Maybe she felt the same way a lot of days. She had many grandchildren and some did not do too well, following the world into strife and misery. Maybe it is the ripple effect. Just as I draw on childhood and adolescent memories of her Proverbs 31 example, maybe my children will refer to my example when making choices in the future too. So I better set a good one.

All I can do is keep carrying on, striving to live a quiet life, minding my own business and working with my hands.

This post first appeared on my Wordpress