It’s always the re-entry that gets me <3

Well, it has been a while and I have so many thoughts bouncing around that I am restrained to develop a Five Randoms so that I can get a post up and move on with the laundry, backed up paperwork and final migration of Christmas to their respective green tubs in the basement. 

So let us begin with the first five thoughts that spill off this blonde brain…

#1  I love Christmas and family filling up the rooms of our house.

I love the presence and yes, as we know…I love the presents…the giving and the getting and watching what others gave to siblings and parents…the food and the games…but it drains me. 

I need copious amounts of rest and quiet and nothingness to balance all of the above. 

And God provided for this in the most unusual of ways. 

A thiry-six hour bout with an odd virus that really brought no discomfort beyond some minor tummy issues and a mild headache. 

I was couch bound in a silent house while Russ and John enjoyed great seats at an Illini game courtesy of John and then dinner with some dear friends. 

And I rested. 

It was a game changer. 

So respect your need for rest – whatever that looks life for you.

Rest and refreshing comes in different ways depending on how we are wired but to rest is a command from God. 

Obey it.

#2   What happened to all the nice jolly people that were bustling about getting ready for Christmas? 

Too much sugar and overspending, I would presume. 

If you are finding yourself kind of irritable and crabby, please scroll back to #1.

And then rest.

Please.

We need you at your best out there…it’s kind of rough in January.

#3    We saw a couple of movies over Christmas and based on the previews, we have run out of ideas. 

The entertainment industry is recycling old plots and live animating all the cartoon movies. 

I have pondered from time to time that since there is a limited number of notes, there must be some sort of finite number of combinations and if the earth lasts long enough, we will surely have used them all up and all the songs that can ever be made will have been made.

We will run out of new ones.

It would seem the same holds true for ideas regarding story lines. 

We are there. 

#4     What do you love about winter? 

For me it is that cocooning we do in the evening, reading or watching a game on TV.

Soups and stews in the crock pot. 

Ice blue winter sky spread wide over the frosted stubble of the corn and bean fields. 

Soft blankets and comfy clothing…and no humidity. 

The way crystals form in a featherlike pattern on the corners of our windows some mornings and snow days…because even when you no longer have children in school…snow days are magical. 

#5   I was reading in Lamentations 3 this morning and it struck me how Jeremiah openly acknowledges that God sometimes/often parent’s us with “tough love.”

It made me think of our current study in Sunday School and our discussion yesterday about how we have a tendency to skip over passages that don’t make us feel good about ourselves. 

So contrary to our culture. 

It’s all about feeling good about ourselves, isn’t it?

But as I read through verse by verse, I recognize that me feeling good again is not the point. 

If I am feeling bad about something and I feel like God is not paying attention to me, instead of looking for Him in places where He will affirm me…I need to be quiet and still and just sit before Him. 

Maybe He is silent because I have only been listening to what I want to hear Him say. 

As I sit and allow Him to discipline me, He gently or forcibly brings me to a place of repentance and it is there that I discover who HE IS…and that, my friends, is what it’s all about. 

I do so love the promise that His mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3:23-24), but am I also loving the reminder that I should, at times, sit and be quiet and offer myself to Him to learn where correction is needed in my thoughts and actions? 

Hmmmm……

I pray we walk in the fullness of His loving correction and redirection for each of us in 2019. 

Blessings dear ones.

It is good to be back <3