Ann, God, and a watch that beeps

My sister-in-law has a blog. Here’s a link:

http://annkroeker.wordpress.com/

My confession: I rarely read it. Why? I have no good reason. I’ll weakly claim that I don’t have time to read other people’s blogs, but I know that isn’t the real reason. I suspect that I don’t read it because I don’t want to think I could learn anything from her. The same reason that I don’t take my mom’s advice on clothes or my father-in-law’s advice on cars. I’m reluctant to admit that a family member can actually have useful opinions. There. Confession complete.

But I did recently attend my church’s “Ladies Day of Reflection” and my sister-in-law was one of the speakers. I went to her session and I’m here to tell you, she was terrific. Charming. Well-spoken. I was jealous of her ease, but so happy for her. Another confession: I’m not so good at being genuinely happy for people. But there I was, basking in her success when I found that she was teaching me things. Yep, I opened my mind and some of her knowledge slipped on in. So tonight I’m going to share just one of the items I walked away with. And she’s going to read this and say to herself, “That? I spoke for an hour, I poured out my soul, and that’s what she walked away with?” And I’ll need to assure her that there was a lot more, but this is just what I feel like sharing with you. (Did you roll your eyes at my assumption that she’d read my blog even though I don’t read hers? I’m rolling my own eyes and making a little promise to the blogosphere that I’ll start checking in with her blog.)

The subject of Ann’s talk was advice to women, moms mostly, about how to find time to pursue a closer relationship with God. She wrote an entire book on the subject—The Contemplative Mom: Restoring Rich Relationship with God in the Midst of Motherhood (ISBN: 978-0877881223). It’s out of print now, but you can find copies on Amazon.com.

So here’s the suggestion that got me so excited: Wear a watch that can beep every hour. That way, when you hear the beep, you can be reminded to think about God. I suppose you could also do this with the goal of thinking about anything that’s important to you—your children, your grandma, your lover, yourself—but I’ve been wearing my watch every day since Ann’s talk and I’ve been trying to actually think about God when it beeps. I’m often struck by the juxtaposition of what I’m doing and what I’m hoping to think about. Friday night I was pinching the edge of the pizza crust, trying to make it just right to hold the toppings. Dough and God. Okay, that works. But then on Saturday morning I was scooping the cat litter. Weird, but maybe that’s the point. That even when we’re doing the most humble of things, we can and should be thinking about The Bigger Picture.

And like a cleansing breath, the tiny beep can quickly snap my focus away from what I’ve been stewing about and put it back where I want it. Beep! I’m resettled into a better frame of mind. Maybe I should figure out if my watch could beep every 30 minutes instead of just once an hour.