Be Still - A Difficult But Necessary Thing

My life can oftentimes feel pretty chaotic. I feel like a kid, sitting on one of those playground spinners with someone spinning me round and round, and I am feeling content and desperate altogether!

"Please stop spinning! This is too fast!"

My daughter has a ballet performance this weekend. My oldest son is graduating this year. I have three kids starting soccer season. My oldest son is graduating this year. I am trying to wrap up the school year. My oldest son is graduating. My husband's job became exponentially challenging within the past couple weeks. The house needs to be cleaned. My oldest son is graduating. Meals need to be made... Oh, and have I told you that my oldest son is graduating?

Yep, and with this graduation thing comes more deadlines - for his ceremony, his party, his admission into college. He has interviews for co-ops, meetings to attend, tests to take ... And guess who feels responsible to keep track of all of this?

In the midst of all of this, I remind myself....

BE STILL!

And that can be so hard to do; can't it?!

With life's hectic pace it can be so challenging to quiet our hearts and stop whatever we are doing so we can create white space and have some extra breathing room. Calendars are full. Highways are busy. Minds are active. There's always a lot calling to us.

If we hop on social media - the sometimes necessary evil, it can pull us in quickly, causing discontentment, fear, and a general sense that our lives pretty much stink. But not only that, it adds to the chaos. It adds extra info and worries and thoughts that we really didn't need to add to our list of mental juggling.

I, myself, often have to step back -- again -- and create boundaries, trying to limit myself to social media's latest rendition of "Beauty and the Beast".

But this morning, I chose stillness. I sat alone, with God's Word and in prayer. I submitted my soul to the Lord. I calmed my heart and mind down. I thought about some of the chaos and struggles of life during a moment of quiet, rather than in the harried moments of my day. 

And it made a world of difference!

We need peace and quiet.

We need our schedules, hearts,

and minds to stop and be still. 

It's the way we rejuvenate,

The way we process life,

The way things come together and calm down,

The way we cope and build and succeed.

Have you been still lately?

Choose stillness.

We need it.

Isaiah 30:15

In returning and rest you shall be saved,

In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.