For those who are busy...(a.k.a everyone)

     Do you ever feel like you are running after life, trying to keep up with it? You have a million things to do and onotly 24 hours to do them in? I'm raising my hand way up in the air right now.

 Being busy is good and it's bad. We need to be careful to remember to rest.

"I rest," you say. "all night." 

       Nice try. That's not what I meant. I mean setting aside time to really slow down, enjoy life, and not go crazy.

      Think of it this way: If you don't unwind you will continue to get wound up, and the tension will build up, and you will lose it. Patience goes out of the window, right after love, kindness, and gentleness. Your fruit salad is gone.

     A week or so ago, I noticed some tension building up. I'm really good at taking fun activities and turning them into work. I put them into my schedule, give them a deadline of sorts, and tell myself to go, go, go. So, I went, went, went, bouncing from task to task without room for really breathing.

   If you're anything like me you have a hard time sitting still, having time on your hands and not using it strategically. It's so tempting to plop down on the sofa and fill up a 15 min. time slot with various apps. But it never really satisfies. It never relaxes me, never reassures me, never calms me. If anything it often agitates me, excites me, and/or sets my mind to worrying. 

   That's why I like books. With a book you can escape from the chaos of your own thoughts and delight in the beautiful, organized, descriptive thoughts of another. When I read my Bible, I can loose myself in the beauty, majesty, love and perfection of our King. Sometimes, well often, actually, I long for perfection, and then despair, because someone dumped a bucket of cold reality on me. And then He's there, and He says: "Hey, I love you. I traded my life for your eternity. My grace is sufficient for you. Please, let me fill you up." And I am refreshed. Aren't you? 

   I think, though, that I need to train myself for these times with God. I need to give myself practice in slowing my thoughts down and stretch my focus time. God deserves more than a half-hearted snoozing 20 min. I need to make a decision to purposefully slow my life down so that I can truly walk with God. 

    Books, books, books. What better way to slow down than to sit down and read a slow boring classic? If that won't stretch my attention span to the limit, I don't know what will. I'm just kidding! :) There are so many good stories out there where the authors took the time to create complex characters, detailed images, striking metaphors, and thought provoking plots. Please, give them a chance! There are so many lessons that we can learn from these old books. Secrets about life, love, happiness, work, and success. Secrets that are missing from modern stories.

  
                  Check out a few of my favorites:

Elnora Comstock's mother doesn't seem to love her. She doesn't care what happens to her. It had been like that ever since the accident, when her father tragically drowned in  the Limberlost. Despite the whole world, or so it seems, being against her,  Elnora is determined to go to high school and make a better life for herself with the wealth of the Limberlost.

Edmond Dantes has everything he could ever want, he is perfectly happy in every way. This genuine young man suddenly finds his life turned upside down. He is imprisoned for being a traitor of King and Country, but he never committed any crime. Will he escape? Will he regain his happiness? Or will he remain unjustly accused and sentenced for the rest of his life?

Anne is an orphan. She has freckles and red hair. She makes mistakes, big mistakes, ridiculous mistakes. Who could ever love her? It takes a special family in a special town to see past her faults and love the bubbly, imaginative, sincere, little girl who truly has a good heart and never makes the same mistake twice.

       Rebecca was beautiful beyond words. Rebecca was loved by all. Rebecca managed the household with grace and ease. Maxim loved Rebecca. Mrs. De Winter: everyone knows she fit better with Maxim, the estate, the whole county, than I ever could.  She is in the house; she never truly left. This is her room, her pen, her flowers, her way of doing things, her dog, her books, her china. Rebecca, Rebecca, Rebecca.  She may have died, but did she not win in the end?

                         


                       Happy reading!!