A Quiet Place...in time

I read an article yesterday....Writer urges Internet junkies to "switch off".... It made me think about how I've been living with the internet, Facebook, and the blogosphere lately.  As you can read in the article,

"Like tens of millions of others, US technology writer Nicholas Carr found the lure of the worldwide web hard to resist -- until he noticed it was getting harder and harder to concentrate"...
  "Carr said it encourages quick shifts in focus -- and discourages sustained attention and the ability to think deeply and creatively about one topic and to challenge conventional wisdom."
"We take in so much information so quickly that we are in a constant state of cognitive overload," Carr argued."
"Multitasking erodes cognitive control. We lose our ability to say that this is important, this is unimportant. All we want is new information."
"In contrast, when readers open a printed book, "there's nothing else going on except words on a page, no distractions. It helps train us to be deep thinkers."

I encourage you to read the entire article.  It does have merits.

Do you find yourself spending hours online flitting from one topic to another, forgetting why you sat down at the computer in the first place?  Being inspired by an idea on one page, but before you really contemplate the idea that would lead to real action on your part, have you found yourself 5 web pages away and can't remember what you got inspired about?  Do you read so many emails, or Facebook comments, that you forget the prayer requests, or those crying out to YOU for help? I've been guilty of all of these.

I've found "information overload" can deplete me, and often keeps me unfocused.

But there is a quiet place....that renews me.  A place where I can "be still" and know God Is, and He wants to not only listen to me, to my heart and mind, but He wants to talk to me and RENEW my heart and mind. We all have things in our lives that pull us away from that "quiet place."  So how do make time for that place?   
Just take time....pause....it's a discipline that you can't live fully without.

And for you that are overwhelmed by thinking of something that requires more of your time...you who have children, demanding jobs, family turmoil, all kinds of difficult circumstances....how can you truly live without that quiet place?  God made us to have a relationship with Him, to need life-giving renewal daily....

He gave us the ability to "focus" on Him;
which brings all of life into "focus" for us.

Close your eyes, and imagine what your "Quiet Place" would look like.

It's great to have a "quiet place" but what it really is,
is a SPACE in your TIME.  

That Quiet Space in time can be found anytime of the day, but it can be stolen without the discipline of trying to have it at a designated time too...just don't ever think that God will only come to you then.  For He will be with you all the time and in His every Word.  He's been with me in the early morning, in the drive to work, in a song, while planting a flower, in the hug and kiss of my husband and children, while pulling weeds, while picking vegetables, in words of encouragement from a friend......while reading His Word....and while giving thanks for all these things....

That quiet place is a space in our time to focus on the Life Giver.

Quiet time resources that have inspired me....

Calm My Anxious Heart by Linda Dillow

Purpose Driven Life, by Rick Warren

The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer 

Seeking the Savior, selections from SpiritLed Woman Magazine

My Husband's Love

 The card reads, 

"Our Love Is a Blessing." 

"Love is patient and kind....Love bears all things, believes all things, endures all things.  Love never ends." (I Corinthians 13:4, 7-8)

 

The longer I love you,

the more I discover

just how special you really are.

the longer I love you, 

the more I understand

how blessed we are to have chosen each other...

The longer I love you

the more I know

there could never be anything in this world

more precious to me than the love we share.

Happy anniversary

Always yours,

Ken

Thirty five years of marriage.  I met him after my roommate in college told him that I typed term papers to earn money.  It was the end of the spring semester of my sophomore year.  I don't even remember getting his hand-written draft or what it was about.  I do remember thinking I was in a world of trouble when I couldn't even read his handwriting on the title page...couldn't figure out how to spell his name.  So we talked on the phone off and on as I tried to decipher his horrible handwriting.  I finally asked him if he would mind if I made some ad lib changes when I couldn't quite figure out what he had written.

When we returned to this private Christian university in the fall, we were in a government class together, and then joined a biology club where we ran into each other also.  As homecoming approached, my girlfriends from "our" wing of the dorm formed a pact--we would all help each other get dates for homecoming.  It was all a game for us as we talked about who we thought we could get dates with.  Then, low and behold, as we maneuvered ourselves into our "chosen's" view, we all ended up with homecoming plans! We weren't manipulative gals, just friends with a scheme to have some fun.  

My date, of course, was with the guy with the really bad hand writing, the guy in government class that always seemed to meet me at the door at the end of class, the guy that seemed to want to talk to me after biology club meetings. We had a great time that homecoming weekend...and by the next summer he was my fiancee, and then my husband two years after that.  And the rest is history, so to speak....

That history includes three children, three grandsons (so far!), and a love and friendship that has flourished to more than we could have ever dreamed.  It hasn't been perfect--and I still get really angry with him at times--usually over the most silly things. But how do you express to others, especially in today's world, and especially those who may be much younger than you, that true love and romance can endure through decades of marriage.

Our pastor and his wife have a ministry called, "Marriage Today with Jimmy and Karen Evans".  They advertise materials they wrote titled "The Dream Marriage".  I always hesitate to say this because I don't want it to come across as "bragging", but as near as one can have in this life, I feel undeservingly blessed to have a "dream marriage".  It is in no way a perfect marriage--we are imperfect people and can't produce perfection in anything, much less marriage.  But our marriage has been our dream marriage.  

That doesn't mean everyday has been bliss.  We've had our days, and even months, of tension and dissatisfaction.  But, praise be to God, somehow we managed to always come back to each other in forgiveness, grace, and commitment to love, and keep on loving.  And that love has grown and deepened beyond words.  

If you are or ever have been married, do you remember in early love when you thought you would burst with the fullness of loving, when sometimes it was truly physically painful to think of circumstances that would cause you to lose that love?  Can you imagine that after 35 years, or 50 or 60 years, you could have those same feelings?  I hope so.  

That's why I wanted to post this--I want you to know it is possible for love to endure and envelope your being, until you know that this person, your wife or husband, is "one-flesh" with you.  I want you to know that as love "matures" you find you are a better person because of the love and grace that you've received from and extended to your soul mate.  

I don't believe it is possible without First Corinthians 13 LOVE--the kind of love printed above--really quite simple to understand...not so simple to live out.  Only possible if we are being changed into Christ-likeness, walking humbly with our God and with our spouse, desiring to love the way God loves us...the way revealed in these verses.

I challenge you to read them with "eyes to see" and "ears to hear" what Paul says here.  First, realize that the verses express the perfect love of God, and His standard for the way we can love each other.  Keep the standard...no excuses...and when you don't...walk humbly back to the one you love...and stay by his or her side...for the more excellent way of Godly LOVE.  The only LOVE that will go the distance....the only way that will show you the way back when you fail...

One caveat...it does take three to love like this--as Jesus said, "I in them, and Thou in me, that they may be perfected in unity..." (John 17:23).  Each one in this "one-flesh" relationship must be committed to love this agape (Godly) love.  Mutual commitment is what succeeds--He is committed to us--we must be committed to Him.  Don't neglect this.....please don't neglect it....

Love never fails.