Be Still and Know

When they were little, they sapped my energy levels physically and verbally. Now that they are not so little, they can leave me breathless and drained with their emotions.

In dealing with  a teenager’s sadness, I take on that sadness, all the while pleading for God to give me the wisdom and words to give to that child. Give me the words to encourage, YOUR words that have power to comfort and heal. In dealing with a teenager’s nervousness and anxiety, I feel the anxiety, the fear. I pray for God to give me words of love to guide. Give me words to calm the heart, YOUR words that have power to penetrate the soul. And He does give me those words. I speak them, I text them, I pray them. And I hope that peace will envelope my teenagers’ hearts.

But what I find is that my heart is actually wanting God to fix it all, right now! There is impatience in my pleading for God’s words of comfort. What I really desire is for the trial to be over, for the pain to be wiped away, for happiness to be restored immediately. I have absorbed their anxiety, fear, sadness and anger, and it feels overwhelming.

And I realized that what I need is to be still and know that God is God. To trust. And that is what my teenagers need as well. He will give the heart peace and comfort in the midst of the storm, even though the storm may rage awhile longer.

 

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To Traveler’s Rest and Back Again on the Swamp Rabbit Trail

Since Cassie is down at the state capitol learning all about our government and Daniel has a three home inspection day, Alex and I decided to have a bit of fun as well as a challenge.  We hopped on our bikes and rode two miles to the Swamp Rabbit Trail and then to Traveler’s Rest. It’s hard for a mother to find interesting things to do with an almost teenage son. You can’t just go shopping or paint your nails or go get dessert and talk. Well, the dessert idea may work out okay. But generally it needs to be active – and sometimes that’s hard to do for a mom.

I love the Swamp Rabbit Trail!  We saw so many bikers, runners, walkers and some people that looked like they just wandered onto the trail accidentally. And it’s beautiful! Lovely dogwoods, wisteria, and lots of green. I love spring. I have missed green.

Alex rode circles around me. I would rather run up a hill than bike up a hill, but Alex can do both and not break a sweat.

I begged to take a break when we got to Furman. We had been riding for about an hour, and I knew that I had just made a huge mistake. My body ached and my legs were burning, but TR isn’t much further and I didn’t want to disappoint that kid of mine.

We took a bit more of a break and admired the beautiful campus of Furman University.

We stopped to watch the ducks and this other creature, a beaver, maybe.

We finally made it to Traveler’s Rest and stopped in here to refuel.

This is me, so happy to be sitting on something other than a bicycle seat! Can you see the pain in my face and the relief?

Alex – he didn’t really need a rest. No, that kid doesn’t tire. Just don’t let him run out of water and he’s good to go. And go we must.

But first we bought a couple of shirts because we felt we deserved them. Okay, I felt like I deserved one.

Thank you, Swamp Rabbit, for letting us ride your trail. It was lovely and great fun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But now I know that I should never think I can hop on a bike and ride 22 miles in one day when I haven’t been on a bike in forever. I just hope I can walk tomorrow and sit down. 🙂

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My ray of sunshine

God puts the right people in your life. He really does.  I tend to forget this, though I have marveled over it before.  Yes, I forget to be thankful for the people in my life.  Unfortunately, I take for granted the people closest to me, those who add more blessings to my life than anyone else and those who know me best and love me in spite of myself.

So yesterday, while lecturing my dear son on some neglect of his, I was given such a great gift – his smile. He also listened, accepted the rebuke, but smiled at me as though I had given him a candy bar instead of a rebuke.  He took himself away to do better and left me wondering about this most lovely gift of a child that God had blessed me with, and yet days go by that I have missed this blessing.

It’s not the packages that we unwrap that melt our hearts or the grand purchases that we make that will bless our lives.  Things will not satisfy the deep needs for love and affection.  And it was just a smile that reminded me of all this and at precisely the time I needed reminding.

It would have been more than enough to see that one smile, but I received more smiles as the day went by.  It occurred to me that my son wants me, his mother, to be happy, and he found that when he smiles, his smile is reflected back to him.

I remember a similar story from when he was about 3 years old and had gotten into trouble.  I was trying to get across to him the seriousness of his crime, when he beamed a large smile up into my face.  Confusedly, I asked him why he was smiling.  He replied that he “just wanted to be happy.” I remember wondering, “where did this child come from.” But I know. God gives us just what we need.

After tossing and turning much of the night and waking up feeling weary instead of rested, I wondered how I was going to get the bare necessities done to prepare for guests coming.  As I sat at the table eating breakfast, my ray of sunshine started eagerly talking about all the things he planned to do.  He was planning on cleaning!! His enthusiasm, with no signs of being daunted, did more good to my soul and body than the caffeine I was drinking.

I’ve always called him my ray of sunshine, and I believe God put him in my life to bless me, and to remind me, and to point me back to what is truly important.

I thank God for my son.  Oh, may the ray of sunshine never grow dim!

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Gleaning and sifting

Today, for history, I popped in a DVD that I received free of charge from a source that I knew was probably unreliable.  I knew it would likely be filled with bias and possible revisionist historical accounts, but I also knew that it would give a good skeletal account that my children are in need of.  My husband happened to be home at the time and questioned why I would use this DVD.  Here was my response, which he agrees with, by the way. 🙂

My children will one day leave the house, will be exposed to all sorts of erroneous information.  They will either have to sift through tons of “stuff” to find the truth, or they will absorb it all and believe everything.  So, now is the time to show them and expose them to some degree what they will be blasted with from the news and politicians.  Since my daughter is learning Logic this year and is taking a current events class, I have become more aware of the need to have them learn to be aware of the wolves in sheep clothing – the bent of the author, the goal of the speaker, the agenda of  government.

  So, before we proceeded too far  into the DVD, I said, “Look, these people are trying to get you to feel and believe a certain thing.  Are they credible sources?  Do they have all the facts correct?  Do they seem bent on you feeling and believing something? This is how you must evaluate what you hear, read, and watch.”

We don’t just learn facts in school, we must learn to be think about, evaluate, and dissect information.  And, ultimately we rely on God to give us wisdom which he gives liberally to those who asks.

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