Four Letter Words

It's a four letter word that evokes almost as much emotion as the other more famous four letter word that starts with F. I have never used the F-word, (not that I remember anyway) but I've used the other four letter word numerous times, sometimes more than once a day.

The word that I'm talking about is B-U-S-Y. Because of this word, I find myself telling my daughter to keep quiet and eat her lunch/dinner as we need to go off somewhere and we are running late. Because of this word too that I told my friend that I couldn't visit her and her newborn baby. This is also the word my hubby uses when I asked him if he's gone to top up the bank account so that I can pay the bills. This word is so easily bandied about that sometimes, we forget about the consequences of being too B-U-S-Y.

This is especially so with children. I learned from the Mr Lee Wee Min head honcho of Focus on the Family Malaysia that children spell L-O-V-E as T-I-M-E. I have to confess though that I frequently push this thought aside because there are simply too many things to do, too many places to go.

Even as I stay home to try to spend as much time with my children, things still get in the way. I feel so guilty sometimes. I tried explaining it to one of the young fathers in my home fellowship that being a stay-at-home mum doesn't mean that one is always there emotionally for the children. For me, it has to be a conscious effort on my part to focus on my children and not the next chore.

As Mothers' Day looms near, I need to take stock and re-think of my role as a mother, am I the mother that God wants me to be? Am I the mother that my children need? As I ponder on that, I also need to keep on reminding myself to be mindful of the four letter word, as B-U-S-Y simply means, Being Under Satan's Yoke. And I certainly don't want to be in that position.