The Byway
-One mom's journey following the narrow path-
Do you have a place that you love to go to get away from the hustle of everyday life? A place where you just breathe a little deeper? Despite the fact that we are supposed to get snow tomorrow night, tomorrow is still the first day of spring. To our family that means hiking and camping season is just beginning. We bought a little pop-up camper at the end of last summer and we can't wait start planning trips. One place we visit several times a year is a serene state park. It has a beautiful lake in the middle of the mountains and every time that sparkling water fills my sight, peace floods my heart. It still amazes me that the Lord created such beautiful scenery but I still take it for granted daily. The beauty of nature was made for us to savor, not to ignore or rush through but to speak peace to our souls. I am so guilty of living distracted. I'll be honest, I hate that and I try to stop myself but it's a vicious cycle! I am on my phone way too much (#struggles).
At the lake we have no choice but to focus on who we are surrounded by and the scenery in front of us - there is no cell service. There is no scrolling, just listening, talking, swimming, hiking, and relaxing on the beach or by the fire. We wake up to sunny skies (or if your luck is like ours, a few downpours!) and we fall asleep to the cicadas singing. It's blissful. While all of that sounds heavenly to me, it might not to you. There might be another place that makes a sweet peace settle over your soul when you get there. A place where worries seem farther away and God feels a lot closer. Life slows down in those places, but that doesn't mean it can't slow down at home. Perhaps we can leave our phones inside and sit on the front porch with our morning coffee and just savor a few silent moments. Maybe it's taking a walk around the neighborhood as the sun is beginning to set and the sky is ablaze with color. Maybe we can lay on the grass in the front yard and watch for shooting stars with someone we love. My kids are the perfect examples for me - they aren't distracted by technology when they are outside, they always notice the colors of the sunset, and their imaginations come alive when they are splashing through the creek in our backyard. I want to be more like them. Unhurried. Undistracted. Just enjoying the world God created for us. Jesus often retreated to a quiet place to be alone with His father and it was often in nature. He went to the mountains (Matt 14:23), the garden (Matt 26:36), and even by the sea (Matt 13:1). If Jesus needed that, how much more do we? When we feel like life is moving at lightning speed, maybe we could slow it down a little, a few minutes each day, and follow His example. We don't have to wait for that trip to the beach or that hike in the mountains, we can intentionally spend a few quiet moments with Him right where we are- on our porch, in our backyards, at the local park, etc. We can lay down the distractions and soak in the beauty around us. It might be hard at first (especially to lay down the distractions!) but we will see the fruit of it if we stick to it. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for calling us to quiet moments and for setting that example for us. Help us to take a few minutes each day to slow down and savor it. Help us find a time and place in our day to rest in You. Speak peace to our souls as we follow what You've modeled for us. Help us to realize that time spent in the quiet with You is not wasted time, but that it's the most valuable moment of our day.
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Waiting is such a hard thing for me. I am a planner by nature, I love to know what's ahead. I haven't met a single person who enjoys waiting. When God gives me an idea, I get so excited that I want the end result immediately. Sometimes, while we are sitting in the silence of the wait, we feel like God is ignoring our prayers. God isn't ignoring our prayers but sometimes the answer is "not yet". I'll be honest, I don't love that answer when it's given to me. I usually reply with, why not!? I experienced a time of waiting in my life (more than once, but this one stands out to me). I was desperate for God to answer my prayer so I tried to control things. I went from doing my part to trying to do His part too. Needless to say, that didn't go over well. I believed I knew what was best for me and tried to take matters into my own hands. I'll be honest, it didn't work. When I finally came to end of myself, I started pressing in to God. I began to pray more (most of the time it was desperate pleas for this prayer to be answered, just keepin' it real!) and I began to read my Bible a lot more. I wrote down scripture and meditated on it. As I drew closer to Him, I started to relinquish my control.
As I was in this waiting period my husband and I traveled out of town. When we got to our hotel, I immediately noticed a church sign across the road- you know the ones where churches post quotes or sayings to get you thinking. Well this one really spoke to me - it said: "God's time is always time enough." I knew God placed those words there for me. After that, I relented. I started to trust God's control more, I began to trust His sovereignty. I felt His peace again. Eventually I saw the answer to that prayer but it didn't come without the lesson. I'm grateful for what I learned during that period of waiting (hindsight!). Even after learning this lesson, it's still hard for me (#controlfreak)! If this is something you struggle with as well, I encourage you to rest in the promise of 1 John 5:14 (ESV): "This is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him." Heavenly Father, thank you so much for sustaining us in those trying times of waiting. Help us to present our requests to you and to know that if our desires align with Your will, we will have them. Help us to be patient and to trust in Your sovereignty. "So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom." Psalm 90:12 (ESV)
This week I learned a lot about God's love for me and that He actually calls us to rest. I'm not talking specifically rest on Sundays, but about rest from constant doing. I love ministry. For quite some time I prayed for God to give me a ministry to be passionate about. A way that I could make a difference. God answered that prayer through many ministry opportunities, but once I got started it became hard for me to say no to any ministry opportunity. Our schedules were really busy this year and I kept hearing God calling us to slow down. I know God calls us to ministry but I didn't realize He also calls us to rest. Recently I was given the opportunity to go on a mission trip this summer (one that I've been praying about for two years) and it happens to fall during the week we were planning to take our family vacation to the beach. That threw a wrench in things. I began to pray about it and felt like I was being led to say no to the mission trip (again). How could God call me to go to the beach and not on this trip? He calls us to serve right? Through prayer and talking it out with my husband and friends, I realized that God calls us to ministry and to rest. I've been so busy saying yes, yes, yes to all of the opportunities I've been presented with that it didn't really occur to me that I could choose rest over yes and it would still be an obedient decision. The key to this decision was really discernment. I can't use rest as an excuse to ignore ministry opportunities that God is calling me to but my goal is to pray through and discern what He is asking me to do and take that step. In this decision I felt God calling me to rest and He confirmed that after I made the decision. I feel so amazed that God loves us so much that He wants us to work and rest. I know that God rested from His work and I am learning that instead of thinking of rest as quitting the work He has called us to, that I need to think of it as recharging so that we can finish the work He's called us to. I'm so grateful that He loves us enough to call us into His rest. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for calling us to ministry and for ministering to us through rest. I pray that we will be obedient to whatever you call us to and use our rest to prepare us for future opportunities. May Your voice always guide our decisions. "Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!" Psalm 90:17 (ESV) Charles Spurgeon once said “If I know that Jesus lives for me, then darkness is not dark: even the night is light about me.” Do you ever feel like the path in front of you is dark and you can’t see where you are going? It feels like darkness is all around and seems like God is far away. I had a dream that I was driving a car and it was completely dark. I was on the road going pretty fast but I felt as though I was blind, I could see nothing in front of me. I could sense the woods around me and I was fearful of all of the things I could run into but I couldn’t stop. It’s easy to worry about all of the things that can go wrong when you have no vision of where you are going. For some reason, I kept driving even though I was afraid. It was terrifying but suddenly in front of me the sky turned a brilliant red as the sun began to rise. I could see where I was and I was safe. Isn’t that how life is? Sometimes we don’t see what God has planned for us and it feels as though we are driving blindly down life’s mountainous roads destined to crash. But He is there, like the sun rising, the true Son never fails to light our paths. His shows up in a mighty way and relief washes over us. The truth is, even in the dark, He’s never left us. In the silence, He’s still there. Psalm 18:28 says “...my God turns my darkness into light.” This gives us rays of hope. He will show up when we don’t know what to do and in His beautiful light we will see Him clearly and will know we are safe.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much for going before us and keeping us on the right path when we are unsure of what is ahead. Please give us peace and remind us that our darkness is not dark to you. Thank you for being our light and help us to discern Your will for us. If you have time, read Psalm 139. |
Meet Christina
Christ follower. Wife. Mom of two. Here to encourage others by writing about what God is teaching me. Archives
April 2018
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