Building a Kids Playset with God
With my kids growing, seemingly faster and faster I can’t help but feel the pressure to seize every moment before it is gone. For quite some time now I have been toiling over exactly what I want to include in a playset my kids will truly love. This is the #1 force behind all the work to expand our back yard. All the trees removed, and decades of overgrowth cleared out was done to allow my kids to enjoy the space.
As I contemplate exactly what I want the playset to include I have begun to make drawings and even started to transfer them into sketchup so I could visualize my ideas with exact measurements. The more I thought about it the more I started to see the opportunities for creating content. i.e. Youtube videos, and digital build plans.
As woodworking and/or content creation is far from my full time job, I am at a constant struggle to spend my time wisely as I do not have much of it to spare. I either do work on projects after the kids are in bed or I abandon them for periods of time on the weekends. Lately I have resorted to mowing the lawn after putting the kids to bed, often finishing in the dark. This does give me something to look forward to the following morning. I get to see how many spots I missed. Mowing in the dark is worth it to me if it means I get to spend more time with my wife and kids over the weekend.
But there are times when we do need to sacrifice now for something better in the future. For example: Attend night school and sacrifice time with your family now so you can have a better paying job and provide a better life for your family in the future.
Roughly estimating the additional time it would take to include filming the build process as well as putting together a full set of build plans would easily double or triple the amount of time I would dedicate to this project. So I have to ask myself… Is it worth the time sacrificed? Maybe, maybe not.
Lately I have spend a fair amount of time reflecting on my direction in life and trying to go where God wants me too. I can’t say that I always know where that is, but maybe that is part of my journey. Maybe I am not suppose to know. Maybe I am suppose to have faith that God will provide.
Like most of us, I tend to fill my life with “busy” and struggle to be idle. I have a never ending list of tasks/projects. I think this is partially due to the fact that I have a career as a software engineer, but a lot of my identity is defined as the “woodworker”, the “builder”, the guy who can “fix stuff”. Where does that part of my identity align with my life priorities?
Identity Priorities (In Order)
- Christian
- Husband
- Father
- Son
- Brother
- Friend
- Woodworker/Artist/Maker
Life Priorities (In Order)
- Love God
- Love my wife
- Love my children
- Provide for family
Even if accept the fact that turning my never ending list of projects into content that can generate additional passive income I have to ask… Is the juice worth the squeeze? Is this a wise a use of my time? Will publishing this content help others come to God? Will it allow me to spend more time with my family? Will it truly help me better provide for my family? If I am honest with myself, the answer to all of those questions is undeniably “no”.
I am constantly asking myself if God is putting certain things in my life to shape me for something different, something better, something where God can use me to bring more people closer to Him. Analyzing at every decision I make and contemplating whether or not it aligns with Gods purpose for me.
God has blessed me with many skills and passions that do align with my priorities. For example, next month I will be part of a mission trip to Guatemala where I get to use my skills and passions to build homes for orphans and widows. So in this instance having the identity of someone who is good with his hands is does align with my priorities.
For a project as big as the playset where time is extremely high on the priority list I simply cannot justify the time it would take to create content. Having this realization is freeing. It already makes me more excited to get this project started. This should be a fun project that I hope I can even get my kids involved with.
Note: I’ll still post periodic pictures as well as any links to any plans I use.
