“It all came to my head that day when Aubrey was playing in front of me and I sat disengaged on my phone. When I looked up and she was looking at me, I felt God nudging me to listen to His voice. “
I met Katelyn at a bible camp my whole family was attending. I remember thinking she was quite mature for her age and also very sincere. Katelyn had a wild mass of curly, blonde hair, like me. I can see she does a better job of taming hers than I do of mine 😉 Katelyn is genuine and also an amazing mother and wife.
Inspiring Women: Life With Katelyn
A Little About Me:
For those that don’t know me, my name is Katelyn Dyck. I am a born and raised Ontario kid but moved out to windy Saskatchewan to attend bible school, where I met and married my darling Dave.
We have been married for five years, and just this past August, welcomed our precious daughter Aubrey into the family.
We live in Caronport where life is a lot like ‘Mayberry’ (as my mom pointed out). It’s your stereotypical small town where people know each other, are like extended family and look out for one another. We have cherished our time here.
10 years ago Dave was diagnosed with MS, and the impact of that is a daily one.
For anyone who has a loved one with a debilitating disease, you can appreciate the weight of that statement. I watched for the first 3 years of our marriage as his health steadily declined.
Countless times we cried out to God for release from this disease. We did many drug treatments and were constantly told that our only hope was in new and better drugs, and to prepare ourselves for major disability down the road.
Luckily, our hope is in God and He is good, answering our prayers in an unexpected way.
Two years ago we turned our lives upside down with diet and lifestyle changes in order to support Dave’s health. The healing changes we saw were drastic and so now we live a very traditional, natural lifestyle. It’s not the answer we prayed for, but it’s absolutely an answer to prayer!
It’s funny, when faced with this section I wasn’t really sure how to talk ‘a little about me’. My life is so wrapped up in Dave’s health, our lifestyle, and now my daughter, that I am not sure where that leaves me. I assume this is a common ‘mom problem’; so busy taking care of everyone else that you don’t know how to take care of yourself.
When asked to write this, every day I came to my computer and prayed, “what do you have for me Lord?” but I felt blank. At first, I thought well, of course, I will talk about our health journey, but as I wrote, it just didn’t feel right. Then I thought, well I can expand on that and speak to my journey through disability, as a spouse. Again, as I wrote, I knew it just wasn’t right. It was only after a weeklong break from social media that God laid on my heart a deep desire and sense of what He was teaching me.
My Day-to-Day:
My day-to-day, as many would suspect, involves lots of nursing, napping, schedules, and diapers. As I sit here and write this, Aubrey is happily babbling and playing on the floor and I’m loving every moment of it!
The first three months with her were extremely challenging as we faced many unexpected hurdles, but we overcame them and our time together has only grown that much sweeter.
However, as things became easier, and routine was established I began to notice how much time I spent with my phone in hand.
Innocently I told myself, I just want to take a picture, text so-and-so, or capture this moment on video. But in my
I was allowing myself to get muddled in the constant scrolling and bombardment of images and ideas of social media.
I started to notice that I was dealing with regular anxiety from things I would see on Facebook. So, I would recite Philippians 4:6 to myself:
But without removing the problem, I couldn’t move forward. I felt the Holy Spirit remind me, “You shall have no other gods before me” (Ex 20:3). So, inspired by a friend who had recently stepped away from social media, I made the decision to take a break for a week.
The week went by, and at first, I’ll admit, I missed seeing the goings-on of peoples’ lives and feeling like I was sharing in something.
By the week’s end, however, I felt very different, I felt free.
After the break was over I went back on Facebook and Instagram, but felt empty, the satisfaction of it was gone.
It all came to my head that day when Aubrey was playing in front of me and I sat disengaged on my phone. When I looked up and she was looking at me I felt God nudging me to listen to His voice.
“No” I said to myself, “I don’t want to miss out on this chance to be present here with my daughter”. It was at that moment that I made the decision to leave social media indefinitely.
My Struggles:
Dave and I have some big life changes around the corner, much of it focusing around Dave’s purpose and calling, and as mentioned, his health has also been a primary focus of our life together.
As we seek out God’s will for our life in this next chapter, I have often wondered, “What is my purpose and calling?”
Since being on maternity leave life looks very different than it used to. In these last months, I have really started to ask myself, “how do I take care of me” and “how can I be a good steward of my time?” Everyone talks about the importance of self-care these days, but it was only in the quiet and stillness of my mind that God began revealing to me this idea of purpose.
Part of self-care is learning to nourish yourself. First upwards, in your relationship with God, and then outwards in your relationship with others. This reminds us to look at the Cross; something that I had forgotten or maybe buried deep, in order to keep living in a state of distraction.
During the social media break, it was interesting to me that as I began to focus my attention elsewhere; in each devotional I read, book I picked up, or podcast I listened to, they all had this common theme of ‘purpose’.
*Listen to one of Katelyn’s favorite podcasts: Behind the Scenes (Go behind the scenes with Jeremy & Audrey Roloff as they discuss family, business, faith, and life.)
It’s funny how sometimes God is shouting something at you but you can’t hear it through the noise we allow in our lives.
We live in such a busy, information filled, image-driven world, that I can now see that I was continually missing a chance to hear God’s voice every time I allowed myself to be distracted and disengaged.
One of the things that I enjoyed so much about the break was the time to focus inward on myself and also outward on my family.
My attention wasn’t divided anymore. I was focusing on living and enjoying my life instead of focusing on what everyone else was doing. I found peace and purpose in that.
Something I heard someone say recently:
“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives”.
For me, this was a frightening thought. I knew I wasn’t using my time well and didn’t want to waste my life in front of a screen. Plus, I was convicted at the thought of one day having to stand before God to give an account of my life.
I knew I was allowing distraction to lead me off the path God has for me.
Plus, I realized that these 12 months off work are a gift not to be wasted. Never again in my life will I have this opportunity to be present with just Aubrey or to have the time to focus on God’s purpose in this next chapter of my life.
I know that part of that purpose right now is being a mother and wife. I want to honour God by doing that well.
This is not to say that I think social media is bad and everyone should quit. Of course, it has great benefits and can serve a wonderful purpose. But at this point in my life, I believe God is calling for my attention elsewhere.
My Joys:
We were in survival mode the first three months with Aubrey. As I am sure many couples find, our relationship certainly had its fair share of strain and frustration.
After stepping away from social media Dave and I made the purposeful decision to start putting our marriage first again. The fruit of that effort has been wonderful!
Although this is a lifelong effort, it’s absolutely a worthwhile one to continue to pursue.
My time at home with Aubrey has also grown that much sweeter! She is 6 months now. Aubrey seems to change so much every day that I don’t want to miss a second of it.
It already breaks my heart to think about going back to work and having to be apart from her. She is such a blessing to us. We love to dream and pray for the person she is and will become.
In my own efforts towards self-care and finding purpose, I have started to set monthly goals for myself. It feels great to have things to work towards each month and makes my days so much more meaningful.
This month my goals include: Reading a book, daily exercises, giving up junk/sugar, and finishing this post! I am also working on my daily quiet time with God, making sure I am listening and not just talking.
Moments With God:
Becoming a parent has given me but a slight glimpse into understanding God’s relationship with us. I am so thankful for how He faithfully pursues, calls, shapes, and moulds us, even when we repeatedly turn away and sin. Like a child I come back to the Father, only to find His arms wide-open waiting for me.
So what is my purpose? Right now I believe God is calling me to be a present, engaged, wife and mother.
I have been reading a book this month about spiritual formation called, ‘The Life You’ve Always Wanted’ by John Ortberg. In it, he talks about spiritual formation as something that doesn’t simply come
I have been so encouraged by this book and can sense God speaking strongly to me through it. So, that is exactly where I plan to refocus my attention in these next months. Beyond that, Jesus calls us to love God, love others (Matt 22: 37-39) and seek his kingdom first (Matt 6:33).
I can’t wait to see where God will lead us in the coming future!
I hope Katelyn’s post encouraged you. Have you been feeling the strain social media has placed on your spiritual life or family-life? Take a break for a week, and see if you feel more peaceful.
Learn about another woman, who shares the day she blew it as a mom. Read her amazing story and what God taught her: Life With Laura.
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