Confinement vs. Sacred Space

There was a time I would listen to my children fight in the car.  The fights were mostly trivial.  Over simple things.  Which seat they wanted, which window they deserved to be by, etc… 

I worked on seating charts.  Rotation schedules so the kids who fought the most with each other never sat near each other.  I played “fun” music.  I tried so many things. And nothing made a difference.  I truly felt that I was forced into a confinement of sorts every single time I went somewhere with my family.  

It was while we still lived in Silver City, NM (2004-2009) that I was taught to treat every minute in the car as sacred time.  I probably laughed out loud the first time I heard the suggestion.  There was nothing sacred in my mind about the time in my car as it was.  

It didn’t take me long to make some effort.  I think we started with the primary songs that my kids would be singing at the end of the year in the primary program.  We then worked on memorizing the Articles of Faith.  And then we started having different conversations than we had before.  The kids started listening and being influenced by what was going on in the car.  It felt like a literal miracle at that point in my mothering. 

Changing the time in the car with my kids from mere confinement to a purposely created sacred time and space has blessed every one of my children (whether or not they see it as such would depend on their memories of it), but for me, it added the spirit to my otherwise chaotic life in a way I couldn’t have predicted.  It made room in my own heart for my Savior.