About a year ago, my wife started really telling me that I wasn’t “present” enough with the family. I was shocked and stumped!
I am home almost every day by 5pm, never miss dinner, rarely schedule meetings in the evenings, and spend most of my free time at home. How in the world could she say I’m not present???
I’m Mr. Present (in my own mind)!
WRONG!
It took a while (as in half a year) to understand that just because I was in the house with the family (or even in the same room) did not mean I was truly present. Being in the house, but on my computer/Blackberry/iPhone/email/Twitter/Facebook/blog is not true presence and now I get it.
Presence is all about being engaged and not just being in the room. Presence is playing with the kids. Presence is a conversation free of distractions. Presence is active and not passive.
2 Questions – one personal & one spiritual…
1. Are you present at home with your family or are you just in the room?
2. During church services are you present with God or are you just in the room?
{ 2 comments }
Good question, Pastor Shaun. This is something I've been working on all year. Our thought life has so much with keeping our focus. After reallying being in a quiet place this weekend I concluded that we can't truly connect and love without being present. We have to think to be engaged in the present and if we are not engaged it will be really hard to keep our lives together in love. I blogged this: "Distraction is a big obstacle to effective thinking and lack of effective thinking can lead to loss instead of love." I'm praying that I keep my focus on the things and the people who matter.
How about just being present with God…church service or no….now that is a real question.