One Beautiful Life

The weight of it all... "First Things First"

I love the way the Lord speaks to me.  I crave it.  When it happens so sweetly, so boldly, I smile from ear to ear and just soak it in... deep inside.

M is in school as are the girls today.  This leaves me with the rare "silence" in the house.  The silence I so crave and love.  I wanted to take advantage of the silence and try to sit with the Lord.  I often just jump in with my prayers and agenda.  It is all heart felt.  But I find it VERY hard to just sit and wait... to sit in the quiet and rest and wait for Him.  My mind races to the laundry in the washing machine that needs to go into the dryer so I can start another load.  Then it sneaks off to the other "to do's" on my list like changing the water in the fish bowl, emailing a friend, emptying the dishwasher and cleaning the floor.

So I try to reel my mind back... back to a place of listening.  Sometimes if I start praising Him... just one praise a minute... it can keep my mind in the place it needs to be... and then it happens.  I hear Him.  It's not an audible voice that thunders through my head.  No, it is a quiet thought that comes from the edges of nowhere and is exactly what I need.  It is sometimes very obvious that it is Him... other times not so obvious.

So today, as I reeled my mind back to the quiet, "Look in your devotion," came to my mind. My first thought was "No, I am now trying to DO something and I just need to wait."  Before I could really get through the thought, "Look" came again and so I made a deal with myself.  I'll look at today's devotion and if it has NOTHING to do with what is going on/where I am then I'll put it back on the coffee table and settle back into the quiet.

I reached for my devotion, opened it, laughed, smiled, and read.

"First Things First"

If other people were to calculate how we spend our time, or the allocations in our checkbook, what would that say about our priorities?  Would they say the kingdom of God is our priority?  Would they say we truly know what life is about? The One Year at HIS feet Devotional, by Chris Tiegreen

It goes on to ask why we spend so much time trying to sustain ourselves and not just "being".

Look at what God does with His birds and His lilies.  They spend all their lives just "being" for the glory of God.  We spend all our lives just "doing," usually for the glory of ourselves.

Last night, I posted about my frustration with trying to manage my time with all the things I want and need to do.  All these things have weight in what really matters.  Today, God sweetly directed me, called me to, and confirmed what I know is important. 

I LOVE it when HE does that and I PRAISE HIM for being the LIVING GOD of my life.