Eyes Wide Open

Doing or Being (part 1)

Slowing Down in a Busy World

Part 1:

God had been trying to gently tell me to slow down. I remember Him first telling me while on a walk in the woods. For the first time in memory, there was a turtle in my path. On my heart I heard, "remember the childhood story of the tortoise and the hare?" I felt a calling, an urging, to slow down.

I didn't.

Slowing down was too foreign for me. It was anti to everything the world was telling me, which was to be busy, busy, busy and do, do, do. It was the opposite of who I knew myself to be; who would I be if I stopped moving, running... hiding?

Again, God sought after me through the words of people in my life to reach me with the message of "slow down." My brother was telling me about the importance of a pause in running a race. He said that when he runs a 10K without stopping for water he finishes slower than when he stops and takes time for the water. That's right, my brother told me that he finishes the race faster when he PAUSES for water to refuel.

Golly! God was trying to be as clear as he could be with me. Refuel in me, daughter - my Heavenly Father was saying.

Again, I didn't listen. And God didn't give up either. Next, He reached me through my pastime of art and visual journaling in the form of collage. I felt called to create a collage about slowing down. I made it to looking through magazines and cutting out images that meant slowing down for me - a candle, blankets, a bathtub.

Those cutouts went unglued. I was so busy rushing about life that I didn't even finish the collaged page about slowing down.

Instead I continued to schedule bike dates, play dates and girl nights; I talked about going boating and to the mountains - and, oh, is that a concert I hear is going to be here next weekend? Right down the road from me? No way?!?! Let's go!

I heard God's whisper, a daughter needs time with her Father. I want time to work on you, mold you, restore you.

Little did I know that God was inviting me to slow down, and if I didn't - he'd be slowing me down himself.

Key Takeaways and Thoughts:
  - Notice the signs God is putting in your life
-  Slow down, even if it's uncool to the world
- Is your busyness helping you hide from something?

Prayer:
Father, thank you for opening my eyes. Thank you for speaking to me all the time through my surroundings, the other people in my life, through the words you placed directly in front of me. You are always with me and all I have to do is recognize that. Thank you for never leaving me.

Scripture:
"Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law."
‭‭Psalm‬ ‭119:18‬ ‭ESV‬‬

"I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people,"
‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭1:16-18‬ ‭NIV‬‬