Recently, one of my boys was so naughty that it affected my entire day. Let’s rephrase that. Son misbehaved and I didn’t work all day. I was at work but got nothing done as I oscillated between anger and regret, questions on where I went wrong and how to move forward from the place we found ourselves.
I am a writer. I write inspirational material birthed out of lessons learned in my own life. And because the lessons keep coming, I literally breathe writing. Well, that day got no writing from me. I have three other sons and a husband. They got minimal attention. Every day I strive to do something that blesses my soul, something just for me to honour Toks. I didn’t do any of that.
As I journaled the following day, I was gifted with a revelation. When there’s a fire, the first thing we do If it cannot be put out is to contain it. Containing a fire stops it from spreading beyond its position, therefore, preventing damage to the surrounding area.
Through writing, I learned that I must start to contain my fires. I have sectioned my life into five areas which represent my purpose. I did that to ensure that each area gets the attention and fulfillment it requires. A fire in the area of mothering must be contained within that area. There is no reason why it has to spread to the business, to looking after my family or nurturing myself. Since it is easier said than done, this is one scenario where intention comes in. A fire in the kitchen will spread to the hallway unless you intentionally contain it by shutting the door. Think of the way rocks are used to contain campfires so they don’t spread to the rest of the forest.
How can we contain fires?
Keep the main thing the main thing. Just because there is a problem in one area does not mean your entire life has to be overrun with the issue. This is possible if like the kitchen and hallway, there are walls and doors that separate the different areas of your life. We have to learn to keep functioning when one thing goes wrong, as opposed to catastrophizing that it is all over. I must also point out that there are times you do need to pause areas of your life so you have sufficient energy and time to devote to an important situation such as nurturing your child or the loss of a loved one.
The trouble with not containing fires is that our resources are diverted from the needful and when we come back to it, we’d have to make up for lost time or we may lose out on opportunities altogether. Usually, things resolve themselves. God wouldn’t have put us on this earth with all its pain and pressure if we couldn’t handle it.
