God has a way of coming at me from lots of different angles when He’s trying to get through to me. He really got my attention a few weeks ago when our pastor began speaking on the same thing I was reading about at the time.
I was reading Breathe – Finding Space for God in a Hectic Life by Kerri Kent. It was a book written for moms and challenged us to reflect on our lifestyles, habits, and commitments. Are they all necessary at this season of life? What is most important? Although I don’t really consider our family life to be terribly busy, it was a great book to read before my kids get to the ages where they will want to be involved in different sports or activities.
Then Chuck spoke at the same time at Crossbridge about slowing down and taking time for silence. I guess it was like my spiritual speeding ticket, if you will. “Do you know how fast you were going, little lady?” I didn’t think I was in overdrive, but maybe God just wanted to give me a gentle warning.
Little boys don’t know what time it is. They don’t care. And come to think of it, neither did Jesus. His clock was ruled by love and love alone. It makes me want to intentionally slow my life down and stop all the hurrying I seem to do. It makes me want to be more loving and less harried. Here are the 5 questions Chuck had us think about…
What is it that is driving me to push so hard all the time?
What am I trying to accomplish?
Who am I trying to impress?
Does God really ask me to do all I am doing?
What needs to happen in me to become the kind of person that leads an unhurried life?
And I love how funny God is sometimes. During this same time, I ran across a verse in Psalms that made me smile: “I will hurry, without lingering, to obey your commands.” (Ps.119:60) I guess that’s the only time a follower of Christ needs to hurry!
2 comments:
You know, I'm pretty knew at this stay-at-home mom thing and I can totally appreciate the slowing down thing. It was hard at first but I'm getting it.
It's amazing how much more I got done when I worked full-time. I did all I do now and more...you find a way of hurrying and making it all happen but what do you MISS in the process? Well, I missed out on my kids for one thing. Now I've learned to slow down and I see how amazing everything is to a one-year old and I hear my three-year old's vocabulary grow daily.
I'm seeing all the milestones with my son that I probably missed with my daughter while she was in daycare...her teachers were probably too kind to tell me if she did something new for them first.
Even now, I have moments were the crazy busy bursts come and I'm miserable and frazzled. Slow is so much better. Even my resting heart rate has decreased and my body is thanking me for slowing down.
Instead of cramming as much as possible into a day the way I used to, I now plan on getting one major thing or errand done per day as well as all the minor daily household stuff and call it success. I now have time to journal, read my Bible, and talk to God during naptime.
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