A Life Half Done

As I look back over the past 35 years of my life, I realize that I've spent most of it wanting to learn how to do things: how to be a good student, how to be a good wife and mother. How do I: manage a home, raise, train, disciple, love kids, cook meals, homeschool my kids, study the Bible, learn doctrine, grow as a Christian, organize my time, remodel an old home, landscape my yard, quilt, sew, crochet, - etc. Most of my reading has been instructional in all these areas - and I have learned a great deal. I'm grateful for the many authors who have mentored me through growing as a Christian, discipled me through the many stages of motherhood and taught me about being a wife.

Recently, though, I've been expanding my reading and have come across some authors who are a little less "instructional" and more thoughtful and sensitive; they see life through a slightly different lens - a contemplative, meditative and poetical one. They're after the same things - to learn how to glorify God with their lives in the place that He has planted them- but they've been gifted to express it in a beautifully reflective manner. Instead of telling me what or how I should be doing something - they just live quiet and worshipful lives and they inspire me to do the same.

During my long weekend away at Morro Bay, we took time to "rest in the God of Nature" by enjoying all the small gifts along the way: beautiful sunsets, a rainbow during a rainstorm, brilliant colored flowers, miles and miles of green vineyards, and breathtaking scenery along the coast.

Now that we're home, I don't want to lose the wonder or the gratefulness for the everyday, ordinary gifts that God grants to us each day. I don't want to be so busy organizing my life and tending to my schedules, running to meetings or reading about how I can improve my management skills- that I fail to notice and be thankful for the beauty God gives me daily - here at home, in my house, with my family.

So, with my life half done, I want to live the next half still pursuing growth and new skills - but with the added dimension of slowing down and taking the time to notice beauty, express gratitude and see life through a new lens- one that's thoughtful, deliberate and meditative. I just need to find a book to show me how.