Rest: from the Father's Heart

There are times you just need it.

          A quiet day at home by the fire.

Almost deliberately, we laid aside the world yesterday.

Hibernation comes to mind.

Yesterday was Sunday, but we stayed home—all day.

          The Texas hill country has had almost no winter this year, but yesterday was cloudy and cold and felt like a snuggle down kind of day.

We did.

          We slept a little late. Till almost eight o’clock and that is late for us on a Sunday morning.

          We put on some easy listening music and I made breakfast. A rare occurrence in our everybody’s on his/her own at breakfast retired life style.

          As the heavier clouds rolled in, we lingered at the table watching the birds flutter around in a feeding frenzy at the back yard feeder. When we felt the need to stretch, Dear Heart built a fire in the fireplace and I cleaned up the kitchen.

Easy.

Slow.

Quiet.

Peaceful.

A light rain began. A little sleet? A little snow? Soon there was a sprinkling of white here and there around the yard. Ava and I ventured to the back porch. We quickly breathed some good, clean, CHILLY, fresh Texas air, snapped a photo, and immediately retreated to the fireplace.

 

          Dear Heart tuned in a golf game, I pulled out my current knitting project, Daughter retreated to her end of the house for a rousing Scrabble game on her computer, and Ava snoozed by the fire.

          My needles clicked and clacked while my mind floated in that stress-less state of nothingness. A rare thing for this old but not necessarily wise wife/mom/great grandmother/sister/aunt/care provider/person-in-charge of everything overgrown worrier.

All day. All evening.

I wonder if our yesterday counts as REST.

As BE STILL AND KNOW.

As COME UNTO ME ALL YOU WHO ARE TIRED.

Our yesterday was a very good thing for us and for our minds and for our souls. And we exaulted God..deeply.

Genesis 2:2
By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work

Psalm 46:10
He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

Matthew 11:28

 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

(NIV)

Personally, I give thanks that we took a day of rest. I highly recommend it. Especially for us aging Type-A’s. J

Prayers & Praises restored,

    Liz

Summer Goes On. And On.

It has been a long, dry spell.

v In Texas

v In my soul

v In my words

Other friends and places are washed away by floods and high water.

Who said, "Feast or fammine" ????

As I hand-watered  one of our hundred-plus year old oak trees, I admitted to God that we are a selfish people who want it all and who turn from Him. And I begged forgiveness.

Maybe you know about the dry times.

No medications. High winds. Daughter’s headaches. Angst about Texas friends who helplessly watched every THING go up in flames. Then back on medications. SLEEP. REST. DREAMS.

Through these long days and longer nights, I’ve needed healing words written by my writer friends, by my cyber friends, by my family. ALAS. I’ve read few words written by anyone…. just from exhaustion.

Guess what???? There IS good news. God knew what He was doing from the beginning…..

            “And by the seventh day God completed His work which He had done; and He RESTED on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He RESTED from all His work…” (Surprises you? Yeah, right! )

Sleep. Rest.

Before the sleep came, I could not concentrate on blogs, on fiction, on history. For weeks on end I could not sit at my computer. Drought was  v e r y  dry.

HOWEVER. I did read many words in Holy Scripture. Some words sink in and bless and encourage. Other words are blown away like leaves driven by that recent summer north wind in Texas that stirred up fires and dust-devils in the pastures and in my mind. But I read again. And again. God’s Word.

So, in my own drought, here is how God held onto me and blessed me—in spite of myself and the evil restless legs……

©     I actually attended Sunday School class a couple of times and Teacher Tom is teaching on Saul/Paul. Isn’t it amazing how God works? Over the days I could not think straight and skipped Sunday classes, I was drawn into a new, exciting insight into the New Testament.

©     This very OLD Christian, deeply steeped in God’s Holy Word, has greedily taken huge gulps of the first Christians building churches and holding onto their faith and teaching one another. Like I never saw it before.

©     Later I’ll write more about my New Testament journey.

©     Even though our local chamber reports on 99° EVERY DAY… here's a glance from our south (the cool side in Texas), shady, front porch on most days of July, August and so far into September. Just sayin.



Honest picture. Honest.



©     Then, I made the monumental effort (applause is humbly appreciated) to start Daughter and me back to water workouts in our local indoor pool. *yuk; up early; drive to the pool; etc. shampoo; and etc. yuk* HOWEVER the water workouts—led by Daughter’s wicked-trainer-mother—work wonders for Daughter’s balance and mental wellbeing. Also helps her mean, old mom!!

©     Family and I drove to San Antonio to celebrate the 25^th birthday of first-born’s first born.  Oh my--- I have a birth grandson who is a quarter of a century old. OLD.  Well. I’m glad God gave him to us!!!

The OLD one is John, far right, white shirt. :-)

©     Family and I joined the celebration of the marriage of Dear Heart’s baby sister. She turned 85 in May and became a second time bride in July. Don’t even TRY to tell ME about serving a God of second chances. J We witnessed, again, two, huge families blending and bonding beautifully last Saturday.

©     Family and I attended our community 9-11 memorial last Sunday. Moving. Appropriate. Good.

Fredericksburg High School Naval Jr. ROTC

©     Faithful friends bless me as they continue to care, encourage, and cheer me on through my bleak days by knowing just when to INSIST we gather for lunch. It’s like a drink from a clear, sparkling pool.

©     Today I discovered who will receive my current prayer scarf. This one is yet another red, white and blue and even my orthopedic doctor said, “It is BEAUTIFUL.” His brother was a 25-year Marine, so he might be prejudiced. Over the last month, the scarf has grown and changed into my most unique—though imperfect—knitted offering. It is important to remind Phillip’s mom that her son did not die in vain, that we care; that we remember.

©     And one last note. Today, at the very last minute of the absolute deadline, I submitted a short story to a contest. The only important thing is that I wrote and wrote and edited and read instructions and edited and pressed the SEND button.

So, dear friends. This has been a long list of thanksgivings. If you’ll hang with me, I’ll try to write more often and offer shorter epistles. Each of you is special and dear and precious to me and to our Heavenly Father who knows you better and loves you greater than I do.

As my cyber friend, Dawn, says... let us covet only the Living Water.

Genesis 2:2, 3

    Liz