If I could go back to my 20 something self and to my 30 something self, I would tell her that she needs to stop with the over busyness and packed agenda and the intense desire to perform, and instead, take the time to be still and get outside in nature and start learning to practice silence and solitude. We can not keep pouring out our cups if they are empty! Solitude and Silence restore our souls and then we have the space to fill up our cups and we will be able to hear from God again.
So in the midst of this weekend, make the time to be alone. Give yourself permission to just BE. Give yourself permission to rest, breathe, and restore.
Allow the time to stop the ‘to do list’ and be still. Make the time to get outside, take a walk, breathe! Saturate your soul with silence and solitude, even if it’s just 15 minutes! or even start with 5!
Now look at your calendar and plan a half day or even a whole day to be quiet with God sometime in August! What would it take for you to actually plan a mini retreat for yourself this August?
Talk to God about this. What are your fears? What are your hesitations? What are the excuse you make?
I find i need to make silence& solitude an appointment or schedule silence as a meeting on my calendar so it will actually happen! and in the midst of our crazy world we need silence and solitude more than ever! Regardless of our age!
WE ALL NEED MORE REST AND MORE SILENCE THAN WE THINK WE DO!
And what would our world look like, if we started teaching our kids to practice silence and solitude before they reached the “burn out” stage of life?
What if we teach them how to experience God in nature, to take time to be still without devices or media? to take a chair or blanket outside and look at the clouds or the stars? Teaching them how to listen to the still small voice of God? and help kids of all ages see that quiet is a good thing, not a scary one!
“God is a friend of Silence. See how nature–trees, flowers, grass–grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence…We need silence to be able to touch souls.” Mother Teresa
That’s my prayer today…for all of us to make time to saturate our souls with silence, solitude,
and the beauty of God.
Make an appointment to be still. Mark your calendar and take a meeting with yourself and God outside, or somewhere quiet and just be still.
Saturate yourself with silence and allow Jesus to restore your soul! Remember too that #RESTisHoly
“Solitude–when you get saturated with silence and landscape, then you need an interior work, psalms, scripture, meditation But first saturation. How much of this is simply restoration of one’s normal human balance?” Thomas Merton.
©lillylewin and freerangeworship.com