{"id":209,"date":"2012-06-14T23:07:34","date_gmt":"2012-06-14T23:07:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kandynolesstevens.com\/?p=209"},"modified":"2012-06-14T23:07:34","modified_gmt":"2012-06-14T23:07:34","slug":"let-me-get-my-shoes-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/?p=209","title":{"rendered":"Let me get my shoes on."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u00a0have always been\u00a0enamored with my paternal grandmother, Mama Cloie’s, response to requests to go do something.\u00a0 Requests of \u00a0“Hey Mama, let’s go get a hot dog and milkshake” or “Let’s go\u00a0pick up some\u00a0fried chicken\u00a0for supper” were always met with a “Let me get my shoes on!” My Mama (pronounced maw-maw) has never had a driver’s license; so her involvement in my ideas always required a driver.\u00a0 Her enthusiastic response was one that I felt embodied a life without hustle and bustle and was always a resounding nod that whatever thing I suggested was important – important enough for her to drop what she was doing and go on my suggested adventure.<\/p>\n

Lately, I have been very quiet on this blog and there exists a myriad of reasons for that.\u00a0 The biggest being my ability to be sucked into the enemy’s number one tool – busyness.\u00a0Last March, I had the joy of participating in a women’s conference in my church.\u00a0 It was a wonderful day and I was so glad to share my story with “my” people.\u00a0That\u00a0elation lasted all of a few hours as the enemy’s attacks came\u00a0fast and furious.\u00a0 At least\u00a0a dozen women that attended had the rug pulled out from under\u00a0them – emotionally, physically, financially, spiritually – in the coming hours, days and weeks.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0My own home and heart were not spared either. After hearing me talk, many of those same women reached out to me for prayer and counsel.\u00a0 I am thankful that my refinement by God’s fire has given me a heart to recognize hurt, pain, and suffering, but more than that – \u00a0a heart that wants to help, if I can.<\/p>\n

Additionally running in the background was an e-mail sent to me by a dear friend\u00a0about a blog\u00a0she stumbled across\u00a0that I might enjoy.\u00a0 As I watched a video on the blog, I was humbly brought to my knees watching myself in the woman’s story of being too busy to recognize her child’s need to\u00a0simply spend time together.\u00a0The blogger’s\u00a0decision was to make\u00a0each moment matter with her child and herself. \u00a0My emotional response to the video\u00a0was reinforced by a conversation I had with the little C.\u00a0 After seeing one of her curly-headed toddler pictures flash on our digital frame, I lamented, “I miss that little, curly-headed Clo.”\u00a0 Without even batting an eyelash, her response went straight to my heart, “Well, I miss the momma who wasn’t always so busy working and doing other stuff.”\u00a0 Sadly, she was right, and I knew it.<\/p>\n

I had been a bench warmer for a few years while Sawyer was healing, and once he was better, I\u00a0went on a wild spree\u00a0to not only get back on the field but also play all the positions available. Not a wise, nor Godly choice.<\/p>\n

This silent time in my writing was not wasted.\u00a0 It was a revival time spent with God deciding what to do next and how to go forward to be the woman He wants me to be.\u00a0 One of the biggest decisions I made was to step away from the ministry where I was involved because it was what God needed me to do.\u00a0 I renewed my efforts to pare down, get rid of, and otherwise de-clutter to prevent material stuff from keeping me from making memories.\u00a0 I reaffirmed that I love teaching, and that God truly gave me a talent for working with children.\u00a0 Yet, I also recognized that the best job and ministry\u00a0I will EVER have involves the children God gave to me.<\/p>\n

But the most important thing I discovered was freedom.\u00a0 Freedom that truly comes from giving it to God.\u00a0 I think my\u00a0two Cloie’s were conduits to that message of freedom. One reminding that I was blowing it by saying yes to every request for my time, and one modeling that I don’t need a title to work for God.<\/p>\n

I simply need to be ready to put my shoes on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u00a0have always been\u00a0enamored with my paternal grandmother, Mama Cloie’s, response to requests to go do something.\u00a0 Requests of \u00a0“Hey Mama, let’s go get a hot dog and milkshake” or “Let’s go\u00a0pick up some\u00a0fried chicken\u00a0for supper” were always met with a “Let me get my shoes on!” My Mama (pronounced maw-maw) has never had a driver’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[75,229,559],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}