by Claire
McAvoy
At
the start of 2013, Janet Young spoke to me about starting a Pram Pushers group in Ballymoney, with the idea that mums who have young children could meet
up once a week and do life together. Initially, I was hesitant, as I have a
tendency to overcommit myself.
I
think I need to share (briefly, I promise!) a little background.
On
the 9th November 2008, I finally woke up and realised I couldn’t do
life on my own, and I accepted Jesus into my life. Prior to this, I was "Miss Independent," "Miss ‘I’ll do that", "I’ll help out there," "count me in" always
juggling far too many things- a full-time, demanding job, a marriage (happy),
being a mummy to 3 children (now 5!), studying for a degree, helping out at
swim club, sitting on 2 Boards of Governors, and training for an Ironman, and
the list went on. All the rushing
around, over committing, striving for acceptance and love and giving myself a
hard time, wore me down.
I
was burnt out.
But
thankfully, God and His megaphone broke through; or rather I acknowledged His
voice for the first time. It was a real turning point in my life, however I had
a very rocky, few months following this, where I needed to give Jesus an
‘access all areas’ pass and let Him do a Jesus makeover, like only He can.
I
knew this wasn’t the version of me that I wanted to be, nor was it what God had
planned for my life; rather I felt God say I needed to “learn the unforced rhythms of His
Grace”. I started to read
the Bible and then other books, including one which has become a favourite of
mine, by John Ortberg; “The me I want to be- Becoming God’s best version of you”,
and I realised I was caught in the cycle as shown below (p38)
Eventually,
I started to slow down, cut out non-essential activities, reduce my hours at
work, and I realised that the only person that was putting pressure on me, was
me.
Every
so often, I feel the old independent Claire creeping back and I find myself
wanting to pick up pace, but I am learning to tune in to God first and with His
guidance and the love and support of my lovely husband, I am learning to keep
this slower and more balanced, pace of life. I have felt God more often than
once tell me to ‘slow down’, and assure me His Grace is sufficient for me.
Now
when I feel worry, anxiety, pressure (from myself) to take on more, the need to
‘strive’, try harder, I remember words Tre Sheppard spoke in 2012;
I have to make a decision daily to,“live in the light of the love of the King, not in fear of the thief”.
This
has helped me so many times to slow
down, calm down, stop worrying and enjoy God’s unforced rhythms of Grace. You
see, I think all along, I was trying to earn God’s Grace, rather than realise
that it was a free gift. I have to admit, I still find this amazing and need to
keep reminding myself of it.
So,
here I am, back to Pram Pushers. I prayed about it and felt God give me the
green light to go so I said yes. So, since May 2013, our group of mummies and
their babies and children, totalling on a good day 9 mummies, who collectively
have 28 children between them (yes really!), meet every week to push prams
(well, sometimes!), eat buns (lots of), drink coffee (strictly no de-caff I
have been reminded!) and chat about labour experiences, baby feeds, hair
extensions, school reports, holidays, husbands- well, anything and everything
really. It is not a Bible study, but God is definitely present and definitely
welcome as we do life together and I love it!!
I want to live in His light
I want to
live in His Grace
I want to live out His plan
I want to
live at His pace
Would
you please, please, ask yourself;
Are
you happy with your commitments? Have you overcommitted yourself?
Are
you putting high expectations/too much pressure on yourself?
Are
you burnt out, or heading that way? Or would you rather live out the best
version of you, the one God has planned for you all along?
Invite
Jesus in and learn, as I am, to live in the unforced rhythms of His Grace.
Matthew
11:28-30 (MSG)
28-30 “Are
you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and
you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me
and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I
won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll
learn to live freely and lightly.”
Check out a beautiful song about
Grace - “Grace flows down” by Christy Nockels
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