How to juggle it all

A few years ago we had a wonderful LDS Missionary that worked in our neighborhood: Elder Justin Rae from Gainesville, Florida. He would stop by on occassion and give us a little lesson about something to make our lives happier. But one day he taught me a lesson that he wasn't intending to teach but it has stayed with me ever since. It was about juggling. It seems that to be a missionary you have to be able to juggle. Who knew that it was part of the job description? My own son practiced up before he left for his two years of service in Taiwan and he wrote home to tell us that many of the missionaries in the MTC (missionary training center) could also juggle.

So on one of those wonderful visits from the missionaries, Elder Rae was trying to help my son Tim learn how to juggle. Tim really wanted to learn and carried 3 hacky sacks wherever he went in case the desire to juggle came over him. LOL.

As he watched Tim struggle to learn he gave him some advice. He said, "Don't watch your hands; look up and your hands will know what to do." It seemed like a strange way to work since you wouldn't be able to see what you were doing, but he tried it and found that he could catch even though he wasn't watching his hands.

That one sentence stuck with me as I contemplated juggling my life. I have so much to do in my life that I can't seem to juggle it all. I wondered if that same advice would work for me. Finally, I got it! His advice was exactly the answer to how we can juggle all that is required of us.

I just wasn't looking up was my problem. I needed to look up, wayyyyyy up. I started looking to Heaven instead of watching what I was doing. When I stopped focusing on how overwhelmed I was and stopped worrying and fearing that I couldn't handle things then I got into the flow. When Heaven directs what 'balls' I should keep in the air, then there is enough of me to go around. When I focus on what I want to do, then I start dropping things. It isn't always easy to stay in that flow. I've picked up way too may balls that I thought I needed to but found out that it wasn't what I was supposed to be doing. I also have forgotten to pick up some of the important things that I was supposed to juggle. More and more I look up when making decisions about what to spend my time on. I'm amazed at how much more I get done and how much more at peace I am when I stop looking at my hands and gaze upward for direction.

Yes, from the outside, my life may look like a circus sometimes, but it is so rewarding when I actually get everything in sync. I used to think that as a mom I just needed more hands, but then I realized that I would have that much more to do so I'm very thankful for just 2!!