A Whole Lot More

The last few weeks have been so busy.  It was nice to have a little downtime today to catch my breath.  Sunday is my favorite day of the week and I find I enjoy Sunday the most when I don't enter into it all worn out from Saturday.  Today has been a peaceful work day.  I've done some laundry, of course, and made a trip to the store. (Okay, two trips actually.  I never can get it all in one.)  I also found a few minutes to sit in my favorite comfy chair and think.  I consider it a peaceful day if I get even 10 minutes to sit and think, and especially peaceful if the house is quiet enough for me to hear what I'm thinking.

I've got everyone's clothes ready for church tomorrow and that puts me way ahead of Satan.  Satan?  You're wondering.  Yes, Satan.  He super sizes his attacks on me on Sunday mornings.  If he can catch me with the right PMS-lack of sleep-unorganized combination, he has a good shot at keeping me out of church altogether.  Not today, Satan!  Eight outfits are ready to go for tomorrow morning.  I feel good.  I've even got accessories and hair bows laying out.  This is real good.  I won't even need to get out the ironing board tomorrow.  Clothes. are. ready.  YAY!

Tomorrow is going to be a good day.  I've got two 9x13 casserole dishes ready to pop in the oven tomorrow for our lunch.  I did the work this afternoon so all I will need to do at lunchtime is hit the little preheat button on the oven and maybe make some tea.  I plan on taking a teensy little nap tomorrow afternoon since VBS starts tomorrow night (woo-hoo!) and we will be out until way past 9 p.m.  We are always trying to hammer home the REST part of the Sabbath to our kids.  The neighborhood kids are banging on our front door wanting to play and we're like, nooooooo.  God wants us to rest.  :)  Does this happen at your house?  I mean  if you can't rest for a few minutes on Sunday afternoons, when can you rest?

I was just thinking tonight about peace and quiet and rest.  Lately my insides have been restless.  My honey and I have BIG decisions to make.  Not the "what do you want for dinner" kind of decisions or the "where do you want to go on vacation" kind.  No.  The biggies...the gut wrenchers...the pray like there's no tomorrow kind.  It's no secret either that we've been on a roller coaster of emotional pain for the last couple of years.  If you've been hanging with me reading here for that long you have probably felt like you were on a roller coaster with me.  The Lord has been teaching me how to have peace in less than peaceful circumstances and how to find rest in HIM.  Peace and quiet rest are found in forgiveness - the forgiveness that Christ offers us and the forgiveness we give to others.  Peace is also found in obedience to God as we submit to His will for our lives.  And peace is found in reading His word.  My insides get knotted up thinking about how unfair a situation is, or thinking about how badly we've been hurt, or thinking about the parts of our future that are unknown, but then I open up my bible and start reading and a peaceful feeling inhabits my soul.  Feelings of fear, pain, anger, regret, guilt, anxiety, subside when you read the living word of God.  It's my belief that we should all read more of it.  See, there ARE parts of our future that are unknown to us, but there is nothing unknown to God.  No matter what another human does to us the Lord Jesus will never leave us or forsake us.  HIS love and HIS grace make it possible for us to forgive others.  If we aren't reading the word daily we just might forget all of that.

So, I'm thinking we need to cut out some TV time, or computer time, and read our bibles more.  I'm thinking our kids need to see us studying the word every single day.  I'm thinking we need to talk less about our troubles and study the scriptures and pray more.  You in?  Let's read the bible a whole lot more than we do anything else and see what happens - perhaps a whole lot more peace and quiet and rest.