How Fast is Too Fast?

It seems as though God has been sending me messages in 2 recurring themes.  One is "Make Me central in your life--not first--central, all encompassing."  The second:  "Be still and know that I am God".  The second theme is what I decided to write about today.

It has come to my attention that we live in not only a fast-paced society but in fact, a super-fast paced society.  Carl told me yesterday about an altercation he witnessed in the drive-thru at McDonalds.  This McDonalds has 2 drive-thru lanes.  I, personally, haven't quite figured out the protocol for these new double drive-thru lanes.  Fortunately, I haven't been to one when the lanes were both busy.  Apparently, the conflict Carl witnessed occurred when there were 3 cars waiting in one single line and a car bypassed the cars waiting in the single line and proceeded to the open drive-thru order stand.  The man in the car behind Carl got out of his car and walked to the woman's window pointing his finger at her and yelling at her to go to the back of the line.  The woman fought back and put an end to the altercation by telling the man what he could go off and do to himself.  To make it worse, the man had the word "Coach" on the back of his shirt and had his young daughter in the front seat witnessing the entire confrontation.

Not a pretty picture, I know.  So, this is not about the 2 lane drive-thru etiquette, because I'm sure that could be argued all day.  We live in such a fast paced society that now our fast food restaurants have doubled their lanes and if we have to wait in a doubled fast food lane it's such an inconvenience.  If it's not a doubled lane then it's someone on the curb taking your order so you don't have to wait to get to the menu board to order and then the employees can your food even faster.  What's going on?!?!?  Why are we in such a hurry?

I don't know the answer.  Many of us have kids with many activities.  I'm a Frisco mom who is somewhat anti-after school activities and my kids are still busy!  Some activities I can opt out of but 75% of them are school-related activities that my middle school kids are involved with and those can't be taken out of our schedule.  Let's face it.  If we're always rushing to be somewhere running around like chickens with our heads cut-off, our kids will be the same way.  I honestly don't believe that's what God wants for me or my family.  I'm telling you, He's been speaking to me.  So I've been thinking....how do I slow the pace down?  I don't think it's going to happen overnight but I do think it's absolutely necessary.  So I'll attempt this challenge the way that's best for me--baby steps.  First step--don't over schedule.   That's where I'm starting.  I have 6 calendars to keep track of and manage and I must be intentional in not overscheduling any of us.  Second step--allow some white space.  I need to be sure there are pockets of white space in our weeks so that we can have some down time to chill out and just be together.  It's when we're together for chunks of time that those memories are made.  Case in point, the sound of our miniature dachshund, Dixie, crunching on croutons under the table last night at dinner sent us all into laughter.

I'm not sure what the next steps will be but for me 2 steps are in the category of baby steps for me.  I'll start there and let you know how it goes.  I think another item I'll look into while I institute those baby steps will be double drive-thru lane protocol. ;-)  So how about you?  Is our fast-paced society having an effect on you and yours?  Are you fed up enough to make some changes?