Family Top 5 Bottom 5 AND Mid-Year Update on 2020 Goals

My family Top 5 Bottom 5 during shelter in home. And 2020 goal mid-year updates.

Bottom 5
5. Hair. I'm a glob of grease an 2 inches length away from a legit comb-over.
4. We are all doing video workouts but SOMEONE usually ends up yelling, crying and storming off.
3. Quiet times with God and solitudes at home in a confined place are not easy.
2. Helping kids with school at home and managing their stress. Wow. Eject button?
1. Fights! Fights about puppies, dishes, fairness, chores, messes and triggering each other (and who's actual fault it is for triggering/being triggered!)

Top 5
5. New inside jokes, life-long memories, family pics in an RV we rented and grit developed!
4. Video work outs all together. It was bottom 4 AND its a top 4 too.
3. Watching shows together: Parks & Rec. Brooklyn 99. Tiger King.
2. Staying connected with teammates in YL for work, yet with no travel.
1. The experience of birthing and raising 11 puppies has been an incredibly bonding experience. The birth process was the most united, bonding experience we have ever had. Janna delivered the pups and popped the sac, Tanya cut the cord and cleared the airways, Dietrich weighed them in and I did my part...I videoed the whole thing from two angles, and other helpful things too (I swear!)

Personal Goals for 2020 Update
I was nervous to check progress. I lost the regular rhythms and relationships but gained TIME to do what is important. I definitely have learned to now say "if the Lord wills" before every goal.

1. Say “no” to 10 ‘good’ things. (In order to say yes to best) So far 5/10.
2. 2-3 hour solitudes to pray, journal, reflect. 11 have been at home, not ideal! 19/52
3. 104 eves/days of 'no work' to read, serve, pray, play with family. 34/104 (catching up but still behind, this one is hard for me.)
4. Take 10 middle schoolers and Dietrich to YL summer camp..this will need to be creative!
5. Encourage Tanya to accomplish all HER goals. (a win for her is a win for me!)
6. Going running WITH others: 24/40 runs.
7. Big 'asks' on behalf of Young Life to reach more kids: 5/20.
8. All-4-of Us Family ‘together’ adventures: (projected to be the hardest: 30/50. 

I've kept track of every 'all-fam adventure' on my 'notes' section on my iPhone: 
Playing Dutch blitz. Watched 'Harriet.' YMCA workout. Breeding Charley x3. Coronavirus Brainstorm sesh. Watched: Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. YMCA workout. 3 LOTR movies on Covid19 first week. Tennis all together x3. Watched all episodes of Parks n Rec. Making a whelping box for Charley. An RV trip for Spring Break. Milton Freewater 'Polaris rides' seeing Elk. Kings Corner card games. Birthing the 11 Puppy together. Watching the Twilight series. The Hobbit series. Jogged around our neighborhood all together. Weighing, feeding, developing, and matching the puppies to new owners. Tiger King x2 & Brooklyn99 x2. Kings corner more. Making waffles, calzones and steak on Parks & Rec reunion day. Going to Manito Park on mother's day.

Blessings to you as you experience the highs, lows and have grace with yourself in 2020 goals. Its a good time to make mid-year corrections, or to add goals you thought were 'gimmes.' Tanya and I are re-adding a goal of doing a weekly 'check in' that we realized we lost when gyms shut down.

Comment with any of your top/bottom or goal check ins.

Some Clarity For God's Sake!

Is 'Clarity Deficiency Syndrome' a Thing?

Anyone finding themselves deficient in clarity? Side effects may include constantly checking the news and social media, unpredictably snapping at people in your home, thinking about praying but being too overwhelmed and lacking faith of the point of even doing it and uncommon lethargy.

Disclarity in which phase our states and country are in. Disclarity in when we can get our haircut and share a meal with friends. Disclarity of when and if our Young Life leaders can take kids to camp or on a trip, and if so, how many in a group can come. And...when can businesses open and people get back to work? 'Clarity Deficiency Syndrome' is a THING.

For those uncomfortably buried beneath layers of disclarity, consider how Mother Teresa handles it.

A brilliant minded Jesuit professor and author, Fr. John F. Kavanaugh traveled across the globe to stay 3 months at Mother Teresa's “the house of the dying” in Calcutta, he was seeking a clear answer as to how best to spend the rest of his life. In epic fashion, he met Mother Teresa. She asked bluntly, “And what can I do for you?” Kavanaugh asked her to pray for him.

“What do you want me to pray for?” she asked.  He voiced the request that he had traveled thousands of miles to ask: “Pray that I have clarity.”

She said firmly, “No, I will not do that." (insert record player scratch sound and cue the awkward turtle.)

When he asked her why, she said,  “Clarity is the last thing you are clinging to and must let go of."

Kavanaugh commented that she always seemed to have the clarity he longed for, she laughed and said, “I have never had clarity; what I have always had is trust.  So I will pray that you trust God."

'Trust' is not often what we WANT to hear when its clarity we seek. Yet it is an essential 'big story' theme with God. Jesus masterfully personified this life. Paul, Peter and John highlighted the life of trust and faith in every Epistle. Trusting God requires that we walk by faith, not by sight. The beautiful, unshakable remedy to clarity deficiency is trust. Good 'ol Vitamin T. The value of trusting amidst the trials and suffering, which James and Peter open their Epistles with, is worth the process because of who we become and how our souls deepen.

We can hardly wait for clarity. Will you deeper your trust in the meantime? That is the bottom line.

(Quote from Ruthless Trust, by Brennan Manning, 2000 that Billy Tormey introduced me to.)