If we are to have our whole heart turned to God, we must have it turned away from man, from all that occupies and interests, whether of joy or sorrow.*
In my mad rush to plan, sort, and organize everything, I can find myself so mentally preoccupied that my prayer life suffers. It is not that I stop praying, but sometimes my prayer is hurriedly breathed out between taking a shower 
and saying goodbye to the boys in the morning. Or I start praying for a particular person, and BAM, I’m reminded of something I need to add to the grocery list. With our family in the middle of a move, there is a multitude of things to get sorted out, and I can busy myself to death with all of it. So I have consciously decided to take some time this week to catch my breath. God is not wanting me to completely forget the things that I am involved with at any given time; He just wants to make sure I don’t forget Him in the midst of it. I don’t want to miss hearing His voice among the clatter of graduation party planning & ordering supplies, conducting PTA meetings–you know the drill. We all have extremely busy lives.
Everything that is not God, that excites our fears or stirs our efforts or awakens our hopes or makes us glad, hinders us in our perfect waiting on Him.*
All of us have so much to think about at any given moment of the day. There is much to be happy about: good health, the safety of our family, exciting new opportunities, thoughts of a date night, or a book arrives that you have been dying to read. A lot of us spend a lot of time thinking about the future or the past. But whatever may occupy your thoughts, remember not to get so caught up or trapped in it that you don’t live in the now.
In case you didn’t know, women are born with mental file cabinets. So there comes a time when we need some downtime to decompress those files. We need to send some files to the trash and archive others. That is what I have been doing this week. I have a break between editing another newsletter and the onslaught of March and the million birthdays that come with it. So I’m using this time to be still and know that He is God. Dwight calls times like these “mental health breaks,” and they certainly are. But they’re also spiritual health breaks as well.
“Be silent, O all flesh, before the Lord: For He is raised up out of His Holy habitation.” – Zechariah 2:13
God bless,
Rebecca
*Waiting on God by Andrew Murray, Whitaker Press Publishing
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