Something to Ponder! Page 19

Let’s ponder the truth of this:  God whispers into the Quietness of a Humbled Heart!  To find that quietness let’s pull away from the modern and hectic world we live in and into a visual of a quiet dirt road.....

 Stop and listen to the birds chirping and the wind blowing.  Sense and feel the fog lift and the sun crack through the trees.  In this place we can quiet our souls and purposely center our thoughts…and hear those things in the recesses of our mind that need to be heard.  Let’s walk down this quiet path awhile and center ourselves again.   We need to!

Unfortunately, back in the real world…..

Busyness distracts, recreation attracts and obligations subtract from any free time we might have.  With that said there doesn’t seem to be much opportunity to focus on God’s voice…you know… the one that whispers into the quietness of a humbled heart.  Often we cannot hear God’s voice because of these distractions!  We’re so busy with our agenda’s and listening to the voice of others-their tones and inflections, their meaning and implications, their intentions and expectations that a quiet mind and humbled heart are simply not available.  A quiet mind…forget about it.  A humbled heart…well,  It’s too busy pumping the blood to fuel the body that summons the energy for all that “busyness”. 

In the meantime, while listening to those voices (usually via cell phones) we are multi-tasking…and we are really good at it!   We busy ourselves in this modern world with our going and blowing and the shifting and juggling of our obligations that inevitably we miss out on huge blocks of family-time.  Our homes are empty and dinner is uncooked as we run around with our children and the greatest of intentions.   Instead of enjoying the simplicity of family-life we go and go… we move and groove…forgetting that our loved one’s voices could fill our home and our over-worked hearts with sounds of laughter and love!   The truth of it is our children’s voices are heard from the backseat of our cars and then on fields and in gyms.  Are they ever at home???  Are we?

Home!  Thoughts of it tug at our hearts in endearing ways.  It brings to mind the nostalgic; it centers us on the important ….and it instinctively reminds us of love and family.  Even if we didn’t grow up in a loving home….somehow we just know that home is meant to be synonymous with something stable and enduring.  For each of us, how we live our life is determined by how we live each day.  It compiles.  Are we on the right course long term for ourselves... and for our children?  Are we showing them on daily basis that family-life is important….or are we teaching them that busyness equals success and that happiness and contentment can and should be found in this go-and-blow strategy.  Through all this are they learning to be centered-at peace.

 If you ask me, I don’t think we spend enough time at home these days.  The world is so entertaining and we don’t want to miss out!  The path to success will be blazed with go-getters and we don’t want to be left behind.  This philosophy steals our peace and quiet.  I’m as guilty as the next.  But, when I finally do slow down I realize that by shuttling my children to and fro and by placing them under the tutelage of others…I am missing the opportunity of personally teaching them how to be a confident and successful person.  I need to set aside time to teach them values and principles…not just sports techniques or dance moves.    With all this running around…when do I to have time to teach them anything?  It’s manners on-the-go, food on-the-go, and life- on-the-go!   Yes…let’s enrich our children’s lives with experiences and sports and allow them to grow creatively…..but let’s also fill them to over-flowing with time to be a child, to just be themselves….to  rest.  To be!

Really, I think we all need to realize it is OK to slow down and enjoy the quietness of simplicity.  It is a purposed choice that we are all free to make.  Certainly, the way each of us create our family dynamic is personal and between ourselves and God.  My point is that, if we have not already done so, we need to give ourselves permission to slow down and ponder what is truly important and necessary in the lives of our family members and then go from there. 

Our busyness is just one check-point from which we may need to seek God in quietness.  Certainly we have other concerns, needs, and personal hurdles that would benefit from the solace of peace which we can find in the presence of God.  Stop for a minute and let me ask you a question:   “Do you need to stop for a minute?”

 Now that we’ve given ourselves permission….let’s go back to the peace and quiet of that dirt road for a while: 

As we stand on the dirt road of life we can quiet our lives by choice and literally sense it- as God whispers important truths.  When our conscious thoughts connect with our unconscious we become acutely aware of what is important!  Believe me….God is found in this place.  Finally, those things in the recesses of our mind have an opportunity to become clear and almost audible for we know truth when we hear it!

 Ahhhhh!  God is centered in that quiet place….and can be heard with a humbled heart.  “Listen!”

I Thessalonians 4: 11-12
“Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.”

Music Download recommendation:
  I Don't want to Go.
By:  Avalon
(OK, the title of this song is funny-but it's  beautiful & worth listening to.)