I just got back from an overnight trip with some of the ladies from my home congregation.  We stayed in a hotel close to Walnut Grove, MN (about a 2 1/2 hour drive from my house) and spent some time seeing things from the perspective of Laura Ingalls Wilder.  Last night we went to a pageant (play) about her life (specifically some of the  stories she wrote about in her book On the Banks of Plum Creek)  then today spent time at the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum and visited the site of her dugout home and saw where so much of her time was spent in and around Plum Creek.  It was interesting to see these things first hand. It makes you stop and realize how huge our homes are today in comparison.  The dugout home her family of 5 lived in is about half the size of my bedroom.  The family later built a home nearby and she talked about how wonderful it was and how spacious.  That home is also extremely small by our standards today (two rooms and an attic).  She was thrilled by things like real glass windows where the light could come in (after living underground!) and wood floors, a stove in the kitchen….things we take forgranted and don’t even really notice.  We got a glimpse of what daily life was like in the mid to late 1800s and early 1900s.  It took all day to do laundry and was a very labor-intensive task that involved several people. Animals needed daily tending.  The cow needed milking.  You made your own butter. You were dependent on how well your crops did to earn money and it took much work to farm your land.  You grew much of your own food and  made do with whatever food you could put up for the winter.  You patched your shoes several times over until they couldn’t be patched anymore or a child outgrew them.  The kids walked to school and Laura wrote about how exciting it was to live so close to town ….school was about 2 miles from their home and they walked most days!  Kids had daily chores to do – not just to teach them responsibility, but because the work needed to be done and they needed everyone in the family to pitch in.  There were times when her father had to leave for weeks (months) because he had to go where there was work to support his family.  During that time, her mother and the girls had to take care of all of the work and deal with any crisis that came along.   It is a great reminder of just how easy we have it today and how much we take forgranted.  We need to be thankful!  I think we also need to put some thought into what we are doing with all of the extra “free” time we have compared to what they had a hundred years ago. I image that Laura in her day could hardly imagine what it would be like to have such a break from the work of daily living.  I think she would see that extra time as extremely valuable.  What kind of value to do we place on our time?  I know that sometimes we feel we don’t have any extra time either, but why is that?  Are we using that time for things that matter or for superfluous or selfish things?  I think that we need to stop and honestly evaluate what we’re doing with our time.  There are many noble and worthwhile and responsible and necessary things to use it for, including using a portion of it for recreation so that we can renew ourselves and be ready to do more work.  Are we spending too much time in recreation?  Are we keeping a proper balance?  As we go through life, the demands on our time and the needs for our time change.  I think it’s worth stopping to evaluate fairly often so that we can make the adjustments we need to as we go along.  It’s okay to say “no” at times when asked to do things.  Sometimes we’re in a phase of life, for example, when we have small children at home, when we need to spend more of our time at home focused on our children, and adding more things (even noble ones, like teaching a class or organizing an activity) would take away from one of our primary responsibilities. There are other phases of life, when we have more time available and can take on those kinds of things.  We just have to make sure we’re being honest with ourselves about what we’re doing and what the purpose of it is.  Sometimes I ask myself if God was deciding whether to give me more time on earth based on how I’m using my time now, would He feel there would be any reason to give me more of it? Am I using it selfishly or wasting it?  Am I using it wisely and purposefully?  Am I making a difference in the kingdom?  These are some of the thoughts I left Walnut Grove with today.