SLOWLY

This post is by Patty Lewis.

 When the year is approaching its end, usually beginning in October and as I move through all the big holidays in November and December (including my birthday which helps me to be additionally reflective), I like to choose a word for the coming year that will be a key word.  A word that I hear God speaking to me, a word that will help guide me through what’s coming and be a tickler for remembering the important things I need to focus on.  This year, for 2024, that word is “SLOWLY.”  Emphasis with capital letters.  I’m like a donkey, hard to really get me to change course. My habits are hard to change.  I just do things, even if they are not healthy, because I have been doing them this way for so long.  I am not changing.  That’s too much effort, in all the ways.

As July comes this year and I challenge myself to a new perspective on our topic Rest & Recovery, I want to lean into how that relates to my word of the year “SLOWLY”.  I believe that I can change, with God’s help and direction.  Not my will, but His be done. 

It is apparent to me that He has far different plans than I imagined at various intervals in my life, and I want what He wants, even though I do not always understand what that looks like until I have reached a place and have a chance to look around.  Part of me believes that is purposeful on His part to allow me only enough light for my feet on the path just in front of me.  That’s the truth I can see in His Word. 

But.  What am I not seeing because I refuse to slow down? 

There are places I can rest, times I can choose to recover.  I just have not pulled off the road of life.  In my life, value has not been placed on rest and recovery until recent years.  I began to understand how plants take time & tending to grow well, why animals need such care, the effects on my body of neglect and how fresh air and sunshine are miraculous healers that add life to my whole being.  

Just as plants, animals and humans (uniquely made in His image) need food/water to thrive, we all also need rest and recovery.  He designed us with rest as part of the equation.  Necessary rest.  Necessary recovery.  Not optional rest and recovery.  Our cells heal and find nourishment when we sleep.  The physical, emotional and mental needs we have can only be met by rest and recovery. These are real and necessary – they are not wants; they are actual needs.  God made all of Creation in 6 days, and then He modeled a full day of rest for us.  Nobody needs to get all legalistic about that day of rest, we just need to slow down, to be willing to ask Him how we should rest.

I want to go slowly, to choose to react slowly, to literally stop and smell the roses.  I want to embrace life and enjoy it more.  When I choose to rest, I get to enjoy more!  I get to have more fun, be more creative.  I connect with Him, with His Creation and with my people more closely. 

I look forward to this July, the whole month, to exploring this topic of Rest and Recovery, to being teachable and humble as I allow the Lord to show me where I can slow down, go SLOWLY, and really, really, slow down to rest, to recover. This life is hard on us. He has said He will lead us beside still waters, He will take our burden and give us His yoke, which is easy and light. He has done the hard work.  We can know Him, and we can rest in Him, in the Shadow of The Almighty.  Oh how He loves us.

Some Scriptures you might look up:

 Mark 14:36

Proverbs 16:9

Psalm 119:105

Genesis 2:1-3

Psalm 23:2

Matthew 11:28-30

I John 5:4

Psalm 91:1

And a song to enjoy unto to The Lord:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCunuL58odQ

May The Lord bless you and keep you! 

Patty Lewis lives on the Space Coast of Florida with her Husband, Son and one cat. She is a homeschool Momma, loves having the goal of encouraging others by listening and speaking words of life. She enjoys reading, gardening, learning, exploring, Disney, coffee (iced lattes really sweet), anything with her family and laughing really loud.

 Photo by Rainy Wong on Unsplash