Monday, April 23, 2012

A to Z Challenge: Slow Down

Not long ago I tried being still and listening for God. The two words that came into my mind: Slow down. Was that from God? I don’t know. But I’ve always had this tendency to go through life in some sort of unexplainable hurry.

Being a parent has only magnified that feeling at times. Hurry up and get the kids in bed, hurry up and get their bath over with, hurry up so we can get here or rush there. Just gotta get through the grocery shopping or get dinner done. Living in a perpetual state of urgency. Life can become one giant To Do list that I have to get through in order to get to some Me time.

Jesus probably had more to accomplish in His short lifetime than anyone else on earth. Yet we never read of him rushing here or hurrying there. He was “interruptible” as someone recently put it. He made time for people.

I think this hurriedness, this frenzy signifies a lack of faith. We think we have to take care of every detail or it won’t get done. It takes faith to slow down, to believe that it will be okay even if we aren’t hurrying a mile a minute, that everything will get done. 

When I can slow down and live in the present moment, even if it’s something that I don’t particularly enjoy like grocery shopping, I have a little more peace. I enjoy life more.

Constantly rushing through this moment to get to the next doesn’t ever really bring satisfaction to either moment. Children get this much better than we do. Just yesterday we were (of course) running late and hurrying to get into the church. We’re making a beeline to get inside as quickly as possible. What was our son doing? Admiring the flowers on the way in and showing us a helicopter he found as he was walking by. He was enjoying the sunny morning and the beauty in front of him.

Or I get so caught up in rushing him to get ready for school in the morning that I shut him up as he’s trying to talk to me about something that happened to him the day before. It’s not on my agenda right now, so I don’t want to hear it.

 Slooowww down. Have a little faith that it will all get done. And even if it doesn’t, it will be okay. Cherish those around us through the journey of our day. Take the time to put people first, our agenda second. Or third. Or fourth. Have a little faith. It will be okay. Take a lesson from a 10-year-old. Stop and pick up a helicopter on the way into church. Enjoy the moment in front of us right now. It’s all we really have anyway.

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Woo hoo. I'm caught up on the challenge. For five minutes anyway.

5 comments:

  1. Great S post. Slow down is good advice, I always try and put by an hour everyday to relax.
    I appreciate it's hard if you have children but it will do them good also if their mother is relaxed. Wished I'd known that when my three were young.

    Yvonne/

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  2. I have gotten much better at slowing down when I am in the company of others, but still run, run, run on my own!

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  3. I'm right there with you. My lists seem to get longer everyday and I just fret and stress about them all the time. I'm constantly trying to slow down and live in the now and stop planning EVERYTHING. Thanks for the reminder! :)

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  4. Hi, visiting from A-Z challenge.

    I can relate to your post. I have found I slowed down more when I trusted God more. The reason I was so busy, busy was because I thought so much depended on me. I found out it's not. God really doesn't expect as much from us as we expect from us.

    Looking forward to more of your writing!

    Kathy
    http://kathleenmoulton.com

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  5. There are times when I just like to turn everything off, lie on the couch, and think or daydream. It's a blessing to be able to do that, it's so good for the soul :-)

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