As I sat at my son’s baseball practice the other day, I noticed one of his teammates crouched down near second base.  He was using his right hand to scoop up the infield dirt.  He proceeded to fill the baseball glove on his left hand with several handfuls.  Then, the time came for him to catch a ball.  When it hit his glove, the dirt erupted into a large puff cloud, covering him from head to toe with a light layer of brown dust.  At that point, I heard some crazy lady accidentally laugh out loud. (Oh wait, that was me.  For what it’s worth, I would have laughed if it was my son, too.)  It got me thinking, though…”What is it with loose dirt and little boys?

Here’s my theory:  As we daily participate in our own game called life, we are faced with loose dirt everyday.  You know, all those little things on ground level that seem to keep us occupied or distracted from the bigger picture?

For example, when I walk into our house, my brain automatically kicks into list mode.  I make note of the piles of dirty laundry, sink full of dishes, baskets of clean laundry needing to be folded, unmade beds and toys/shoes on the floor.  Heaven help me if I dare peek into a bathroom to see towels hanging everywhere, the toilet seat flipped up revealing a fresh puddle left behind from our own little ball player and globs of used toothpaste glued to the bowl of the sink.  Do you ever just want to enter your house, never turn on a light and go straight to bed just to avoid seeing everything that “needs” to be done?

Often, I tend to let the weight of that ever-growing list and the unreasonable expectations I place on myself really get me down.  This, in turn, affects my mood.  If I’m not really careful, my mood can change the entire mood of everyone in the house within 5 minutes of walking through the door.

In the grand scheme of things, I think most of us know what should and shouldn’t be our primary focus.  I’m just suggesting all the small details in life have an easy way of becoming loose dirt on our own ball fields that keep us distracted from more important things if we allow them to.  Many times, I think it looks like someone tried to bring the infield inside and dump it right on my wood floors.  But, hey…clean floors shouldn’t always be my top priority, right? (If it should be, I am failing miserably.)  As my mom always reminds me, “Housework will always wait for you.”

I think it is especially easy for us women to walk into our homes, workplaces, schools, churches, etc… and start filling our glove by saying, “Yes, I can help with that, bake this, deliver that, do this, do that, etc…” I’ve tried to make it a daily practice to not allow loose dirt to control my focus or my mood.  Some days, it’s not easy.  But, here’s the great news!  It’s not just 1-2-3 strikes you’re out…We can be thankful each day gives us the opportunity to start fresh.

It is difficult in this busy world full of activity and technology to train ourselves to be mindful of what we allow in our ball gloves.  When our son was diagnosed with cancer, our glove was full.  Within 24 hours of the blood test, we found ourselves sitting in a hospital room, 4 hours away from the comforts of home.  Guess what? The world didn’t end because we weren’t able to fill our multiple commitments.  Life kept moving without us and others lovingly stepped in to fill the areas where we couldn’t be there to fill.  When the curve ball hit, I realized most of the things consuming much of my focus only amounted to a handful of dirt compared to what we were forced to face.

You may have recently been thrown a curve ball of your own and are still trying to clear the puff of dirt from your eyes.  Maybe you’re a major league catcher and have caught multiple curve balls in your life.  Either way, it is a good reminder to all of us to attempt to focus daily on what is important.  Encourage those players you come across daily who are easily sidetracked or haven’t had as much practice and offer help to those who are on the DL for whatever reason.  I am thankful for all of the encouragers and helpers God has placed in my life over the past year and half! (You know who you are!)

HAPPY MONDAY & PLAY BALL!

“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:18

“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as you are already doing.” 1 Thessalonians 5:11