Be Still

As a challenge and commitment to myself, I had decided that I would post a new blog every Monday.
Yesterday was Monday.
I have bits and pieces of blogs started. Copious notes pinned on my office wall. Scraps of paper stuck in my Bible. Good ideas. So-so ideas. Even bad ones.
So yesterday I was mentally watching the clock. When was I going to get something written? I can't write with the kids around. I can't even form full sentences with the kids around. It's not their fault. I have the attention span of a caffeinated jackrabbit.
I got up earlier than everyone else and tried to write then. I kept going back and forth and starting and finishing and I just wasn't feeling it.
Inspired.
Honest.
Vulnerable.
Encouraging.
Moderately helpful.
I tried to squeeze some time in while the baby napped.
Before dinner, I hid with my computer in my bedroom while the kids played outside.
After the kids went to bed, I sat down for an hour.
Still...
Nothing.
I was spinning my wheels all day long, looking, researching, studying, thinking.
And then I closed the computer, maybe a little too hard, and I sent up a bullet prayer. You know, a sharp, quick one-liner that usually starts out with 'Lord, please...'
Please help me understand what You want me to write. I want it to come from You.
And I was getting in bed and slightly frustrated because I was really wanting to honor God in anything I wrote.
And then I heard it.
Distinctly.
Clearly.

Be still.

So, I get in bed and I'm chewing on that like a fresh piece of sweet pink bubble gum and thought of the verse in the Bible:

Be still and know that I am God.
Psalm 46:10

Be still.
And know.
Instantly, I was.
I did.
And it made all the difference in my focus. For this moment.
Anything that is not from God or about God or leading us to God is...a distraction. Good and bad. It's just the way of it.

cell phone husband job computer kids television friends laundry addiction bills wife exercise sickness death books school worry yardwork facebook dinner dishes volunteering meetings playdates appointments arguments shopping.........

God will not compete for our attention. His is a still, small voice.
And nothing, nothing has the ability to pierce our souls' ears so deeply and sweetly as that Voice when we allow it to speak to us.
I love this song Stop the World by Matthew West.
Cut.
Paste.
And meditate.
http://youtu.be/BgWkuTA-OEQ
Just for today...may you be still.
And know.