Five More Days

Surely I’m not the only one.

As each weekend approaches I feel I will have time, make time, for rest. Rest to me, though, is rarely a nap or sitting and watching the sun set. It is usually time spent creating something, anything – writing, sewing, a thousand little things – exhaling a week of striving. Then most Sunday afternoons find me still striving on the treadmill of life, blinking back tears of frustration as the work week appears on the horizon and dashes my hopes for five more days.

In her book Whispers of Rest, Bonnie Gray writes:

Are you weary under the weight of holding everything together? …. Jesus sees the weight of all the loose ends locked away in the quiet corners of your heart.  He aches for you and longs to free you with his complete understanding.  His loving presence will guide and help you today.

The loose ends got me. The loose ends get me.

All these loose ends are just life’s little things, like laundry, clutter, bill paying, grocery shopping, errands, and housekeeping. I love my family and want to always be available to help them (OK, I just heard my mama’s voice). Making time for me feels so selfish. But the tyranny of the urgent, at work and at home, can strangle the life out of us if we don’t pause and regroup.

It’s Monday, but it’s going to be fine.  In five more days I will get it all done, right?

For more of Bonnie's Whispers of Rest, see her site here.

Calling All Marthas

My Martha heart craves Mary moments.  The Martha/Mary struggle is real.

When email was king, before Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram reigned, a chain email suggested you ask your friends to describe you in one word.  I received several and today can only name one: striving.  It wasn’t meant to be a burden or criticism, but I hear it deep in my spirit on a regular basis.

“The world labels us, but God knows our true name.” – Bonnie Gray

Bonnie Gray’s latest book, Whispers of Rest, is an invitation to cease striving.  Bonnie has a gift of writing directly to one heart while speaking to all hearts.  Through her words, He whispers “rest.”

 

If your life is too noisy and you are dying for the smallest of breaks to catch your breath before the next wave crashes, sneak away and spend time with Father.  Go back again and again and let him refill you with His truth about you.  As one glass of water can never satisfy a lifetime of thirst, He invites us to come and be filled. 

Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”

The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”  John 4:13-15

Little Word, Big Power

The post I planned to write, Confessions of a Word Nerd, was met by a draft blog post from who-knows-when.  It read:

We all possess it, whether we realize it or not.  Maintaining an awareness of our influence is a challenge worthy of our best efforts.

Changing our focus realigns our influence.

Dictionary.com defines influence as "the capacity or power of persons or things to be a compelling force on or produce effects on the actions, behavior, opinions, etc., of others."

I am a word nerd and a coward.  Although I love to write, sharing my writing scares me to death, paralyzes me.  With lives being so busy and our attention spans so short, I am embarrassed to ask you to read my writing; feel guilty.  It's awkward; I'm awkward.

But if I hoard my words and stuff my desires to write, I lose my ability to influence.

So today I will try to refocus on the goal of sharing my heart through words in hopes of encouraging others, trusting God to take it where it needs to go, whether it be around the corner or around the world