How’s your summer so far?
One glance at my July-August calendar and I was frustrated – it didn’t look much different from the months before or the months ahead. How does it get like this? I thought summer was designed to be a more restful season when we look forward to a time-out – so I made some intentional (new buzz word, but it works) changes.
I think of days past when people found time to take time and the pace was slower and simpler – the clock was the same, so I don’t get it.
I remember my kids sitting in the shade of a tree, running in the field with their dog, catching frogs by the stream . . . I looked back even further and could see my hard-working-blue-collar dad taking a nap in the hammock under a dogwood tree on a hot afternoon. When is the last time you saw a hammock – or one with somebody in it?
We’ve lost the art of resting – the power of pause.
Life has become loud – so loud. We reside in a breakneck speeding planet that keeps changing and the mystery remains how to keep our balance while it spins. We don’t relax because who will juggle our life while we do? We need more than a break from physical exhaustion, we need soul rest.
So, the summer challenge for me and I hope for you ~ Enjoy the littles while you have them. Connect with your teen in the in-between. Take long walks and listen to the trees. Read a book beside still waters. Take this time to refresh your faith and experience a sacred linger to visit the sanctuary of your heart. And notice the change.
While taking a break from Precept Bible studies, I’m tending my soul by spending the summer in the psalms – two or more a day. Please join me in the comfort of the scriptures for a 23rdpsalm kind of rest . . .
In the blink of the heat, summer will be over before we know it. Don’t miss it!
He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields fruit in its season and its leaf does not whither. In all that he does, he prospers. Psalm 1:3
Verna
Thank you, Verna. I was praying for you this morning and opened my email and read your post. Such a timely word.
I have a hammock that is not even out of the shed yet. In my mind, the yard has to be finished before I put it out. Some years it never appears. Perhaps I’ll put it t today!
Oh thank you for your prayer covering, faithful friend . . . I hope you’re seeking rest during these summer months (and drag the hammock out of the shed!)
So true, Verna. This idea…this call to rest is the heart of my call. Yet, I struggle too. The tyranny Of the urgent. The phone. Voicemail. Text messages. Social media. They all demand a piece of our heart and our peace of mind. The trick is learning it’s okay to turn it off, to step away. Thanks for this.
I know, it’s a struggle for all of us it seems . . . always needing to be connected while getting more disconnected!! I miss you – hope you’ll be at the conference at the end of the month!
How right you are! Thank you and God bless you! It’s amazing how resting and our own wellbeing has become just another “job” on our list that sadly goes to the bottom of our “to do list.”
Thanks for always stopping by, Gina – appreciate your comments! Remember when . . . it wasn’t “just another to-do to rest”? I miss that – and you!
Funny, I was going to write about the same subject on my blog! Hope you don’t mind if I quote you.