I think we’re familiar with the UP movie and the easily distracted dog. A sighting of a squirrel and his focus is gone.
I can relate.
I’ve prayed and chosen curriculum, and then I hear about another math someone is trying…”squirrel!”
We have budgeted and made goals for our money and then we see pictures from someone’s beach vacation and start to doubt that we have made the right decision…”squirrel!”
I am so easily distracted. As a wife and mom we hold a lot of things in our heads…there’s the husband and then each kid and each of these people have needs and words they want to share with you, they each require of me in very specific ways, they each have their special interests and places to go with them or places to take them, they each lose things that only wife/mom can help find, and you never know when one of them will decide they really need to talk to you about something right now….lots of stuff to juggle in the wife/mom brain!
So where was I? Oh yes, how to ignore the squirrels in our life. The distractions…not that the way my family needs me are distractions, mind you…I’m just saying that we have a lot going on in our lives, and we want to be sure we keep FOCUS on what is most important. Keep the background blurry and put into FOCUS what God has set out for me. It is quite likely that what I think is the main thing to FOCUS on might not be the main thing at all. His ways are often times so very different than our ways. His thoughts are most definitely higher than our thoughts.
Just this morning I was reading from MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST by Oswald Chambers and read Luke 18. Verse 31 says that Jesus said to the twelve, “We are going up to Jerusalem.” He had a FOCUS on pleasing the Father. Nothing would distract Jesus from that purpose. Chambers says, “The great thing to remember is that we go up to Jerusalem to fulfill God’s purpose, not our own.”
Ever since I read the chapter in FERVENT by Priscilla Shirer on “Focus,” I have been praying a prayer every day and have seen the enemy try his best in these little discreet ways with careless words or tiny little moments here and there to knock me off of my feet and lose my FOCUS. My insecurities are where he shoots for most days. The enemy thinks that if he can get me focused on what I don’t do right or how I don’t measure up, then I am certainly going to live life OUT OF FOCUS. And he is right. But I am an overcomer and a child of God, the Creator and Ruler of Heaven and Earth. I need not walk around with blurry vision or a foggy brain.
So my word for the start of the school year is FOCUS. Focus on God and seek Him daily, pursue HIS purpose for me, and pray against distractions.
Here’s a little part of my prayer. Maybe you will write one down of your own to pray!
“…..I am asking, by the power of the Holy Spirit, for help to focus and to pray at all times in the Spirit, to pray specifically, strategically, and personally. Help me to know Your love fully and to know that nothing can separate me from Your love. In my home, I pray that You will arise and scatter enemies. Let all those who hate You to flee at Your presence. Thank You that my enemy does not shout in triumph over me. Revive me and save me against the wrath of my enemies. I pray that I would focus on YOU and clearly see Your purposes for my life. Lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil. Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. YES, You are able to give me laser-like focus and ability to pray specifically against the schemes of the devil. …”