Jeremiah 2:25 Slow down. Take a deep breath. What’s the hurry? Why wear yourself out? Just what are you after anyway?
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.”
I see it reflected in movies and books that the idea of farmhouse living is a quiet, slow paced life. Oh, how I wish that were true. The only thing slow around here is the internet! I work hard in the clinic, some days harder than others, but we tend to work much harder right here at home. The pay isn’t great, but the rewards are immeasurable.
The minute our feet hit the floor, we get busy. There are babies to feed, animals to be tended, garden to be picked, vegetables to be put up, jelly to be made, fences to be mended, hay to be cut, equipment to be repaired, and there is always, always something that needs to be cleaned. We are super busy people pretty much all of the time.
I’m constantly moving from one project to the next, and I’m guilty of putting little schedules in my head and allotting times for each task. I always have a lot of things that I need to accomplish every day, and most days I succeed. It’s tiring though! Day in and day out I’m moving in fast speed trying to complete a task so that I can move on to the next one. And if I’m not careful, I can get too busy to sit down and have some quiet time with God.
Recently, we have been so busy that we actually took a day off. We actually stopped and slowed down and just rested for a while. I called the day a “dog day” because I laid around like our dogs.
I looked out from our back deck at our hot tub and at the creek that trickles behind the house, and I say, “we don’t ever need to go on vacation. We have the perfect vacation spot right here!” But then I laugh and realize that the only problem is we don’t vacation while we are here. We can’t stop long enough. That’s the truth. We take a vacation every year so that we can slow down and be still for just a little while.
But y’all, God doesn’t want us hurrying around all day long. He wants us to enjoy His creation, enjoy a relationship with Him, and glorify Him. I started writing these morning devotionals at the beginning of the pandemic to encourage myself and to possibly encourage others. I thought I would only write them for a few days or maybe even a weeks, but here I am ovee a year later still writing. I look forward to this quiet time every morning. Before I write, I pray and ask God to give me a word. Then, I read scripture and other devotionals. You see, writing these morning devotionals has made me slow down for about an hour every…single…day. I slow down and really spend some quality time with my Father.
In this busy, chaotic world, we have to slow down. What are we chasing anyways? We should be chasing Christ. This is only our temporary home. We are just passing through. You don’t have to write devotionals though. That’s not everybody’s cup of tea. But slowing down and spending time in the presence of our Lord and Savior on daily basis is an absolute must. Our hearts long for that quiet time with Christ. Slow down today. Etch out a little time to sit down and have a little chat with God. You won’t regret it! All of those things you feel the need to accomplish will be accomplished with so much more ease if you put Christ first! Slow down!
Inspirations from the Funny Farm 