jena meyerpeter

I’m easily distracted. If you know me well, don’t laugh…I know you’re laughing.

So much so that I’ve read articles on adult ADD just to make sure I wasn’t overlooking a clinical problem (thank you, WebMD). I forget things, important things sometimes, and miss the details of life like parent-teacher conferences for example. Super smart people have shown me their e-calendars and organization apps. Lovely. I’ve been gifted awesome planners with suggestions on how to actually use them. Great idea. Last year I was challenged by a friend to take inventory of how I spend my days in 30-minute increments. Tracking it was tedious because I found I wasn’t spending that long on any one task. It was a little here and a little there. I start one thing and get distracted by another: laundry, carpool, phone call, email, dishes, bills, Instagram, pray for a friend, back to the laundry I left sitting on the couch, cook dinner…and on, and on. Is this all sounding a bit familiar?

I know I don’t need a diagnosis. I’m 99.7% (leaving room for error) certain I don’t have a serious condition. I’m suffering from this thing we call Life. Most likely it’s not my circumstances that need to change it’s my perspective. I need to know my mission. I’m a Jesus loving, warrior chic who gets antsy without clear orders.  Then there are many times when I do get clear directives but Life distracts me to the point of ineffectiveness.

It’s one thing to forget peanut butter at the store or my wallet when I leave the house (thanks for the loans [you know who you are] and to my daughter’s elementary school for still letting me enter without my I.D.) but it’s another thing to forget my purpose in living. How quickly I live like my life is about tasks and to-dos, just getting from one day to the next. I need to stop and remember:

1. I am a daughter of God
2.  I represent His Kingdom here on Earth each moment, every day
3. I am Josh’s wife
4. I am Mom to three wonderful girls

It really is that simple. Everything I do and how I spend “my” time and energy is best sifted from the top of that list down. My mission is to have God-directed influence in every relationship and responsibility I encounter beginning with those top priorities. Sometimes that means I teach and write, other times that means I’m at home baking cookies or enjoying a slow cup of coffee with my husband. The point is we are to actually live what Jesus says in Matthew 6:33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

We have our mission and we can step into it with confidence and courage. The craziest part is, when we feel like God is asking a lot of us He’s actually giving us what we need most. Himself. When we get distracted and lose sight of our purpose we can, with courage and confidence, turn to our Father and ask Him to remind us who we are and why we’re here.

“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need.” Hebrews 4:16