What Making Space In Your Life Really Means, Because It’s Not Just Cleaning Out Your Closet Using Solitude to Find Peace of Mind The Lost Practice of Resting One Day Each Week A Day of Rest: 12 Scientific Reasons It Works

A field that has rested gives a bountiful crop.   Ovid I've talked about rest before, in bits and pieces.  But I love the picture Ovid gives with today's quote so I thought I would "bit and piece" the topic some more.  As I grow in my understanding and ability (just hang with me on that word) to rest I grow in understanding of what Ovid means by today's thought, of why God asked us to observe Sabbath rest, of why - on a very practical level - it is advisable for farmers to literally rest their land every seven years. When the soil rests for a year it replenishes its nutrients, it restores its ability to serve, it refreshes so that the work can continue.  So it goes for our hearts and even our physical bodies.  When we rest our hearts, our minds, and our bodies we are replenishing our emotional and mental nutrients, we are restoring our energy so we can serve/work, and we are refreshing our spirits so we can continue on.  It all sounds ...

It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of work to do.   Jerome K Jerome Ha!  This quote makes the list because I pretty much view idling this way.  I don't know if I can blame it on my Type A nature or what but I can't simply just idle a day away and even if I do manage it I'm still reviewing in my head all the things I need to do the minute I determine the idling is done. Sheesh Beth, LET IT GO.  Just rest already will ya? I'm trying, I really am.  But if I decide to watch a movie (idling) I also find something that can be done and needs to be done while watching a movie.  I've been known to chop vegetables, go through junk mail and paper work, fold laundry, etc.  I consider it making good use of time (multi-tasking) but then I'm not idling (resting) I'm just slowing down a bit.  :) I realize I'm not good at resting.  I don't know how to do it, it makes me feel uncomfortable because I know all that n...

A well-known pastor, he was was once asked what was his most profound regret in life? “Being in a hurry.” That is what he said. “Getting to the next thing without fully entering the thing in front of me. I cannot think of a single advantage I’ve ever gained from being in a hurry.” “But a thousand broken and missed things, tens of thousands, lie in the wake of all the rushing.…Through all that haste I thought I was making up time. It turns out I was throwing it away.”   Mark Buchanan Being in a hurry puts us in the mindset of busy.  And we glorify busy, for that matter we also glorify being in a hurry.  Why do we do that?  Why do we teach, most of the time unknowingly, that being in a hurry and therefore busy is good?  Preferred even?  Because if we slowed down long enough to quiet ourselves and our busy minds we would see with the eyes of our hearts that being in a hurry and busy is not preferred.  It causes us to miss some of the m...