Last night, I felt restless in my spirit. You know that sensation that you get when you have plenty to do, but you don’t WANT to do any of it? I had the need to get out. Some people call it “ME” time.
I don’t call it “ME” time. I never found spending an hour pampering myself to be refreshing at all. However, I DO find a nice, long, not too slow, and not too fast, walk to work WONDERS. I didn’t allow any little boys to come with me, because that would have been counterproductive. This was not family time. This was not ME time. This was God time. Oh yeah, I’m talkin’ Jesus again.
In person, I’m not comfortable sharing my spiritual thoughts with others, but I have become so accustomed to sharing them right out loud on the internet that I honestly forget that anyone reads it.
I’ve been hearing the Holy Spirit speaking to me a lot lately. (I’ve discussed this before. It’s not an audible voice. Please don’t mail me a straight jacket.)
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.” John 14:25-26
Lately this is what I have heard from God.
-Trust me.
-If you stay in tune with Me, it will go so much better for you.
I sometimes joke that I am “just not good at life.” Of course, I am no better or worse than most folks at life, but I love to exaggerate to the negative, focus on the problems rather than the blessings, and forget to just trust God.
I am still slowly reading through the New Testament this year. My focus is on learning more about Jesus. Jesus is an amazing window into the heart of God.
“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.” John 14:12
It is greater, but I had a hard time figuring out how anything we could do could be greater than anything Jesus did, so I looked it up in my favorite reference book:
The works that we do are greater in that we are doing these works in the power of the Holy Spirit. This is a miraculous thing in this world!! For God to have taken His Spirit, and rested it on the heart of every single HUMAN believer, that we may be his agents here on Earth, that is AMAZING. How can we be so unholy, and yet be agents of God?
Only through Jesus, only through God’s grace.
Today I got to do something, at church, that is great fun to me. I got to sing. I love to sing. However, singing in front of an audience is not as fun, because I get so nervous my body actually shakes. I quiver, right down to my legs. I can’t steady my spirit. I’m a sickly, selfish, vain little soul, but if I rely on the Holy Spirit, I can. God will help us do things that are done for his glory.
Stories of our boys……from this week:
This whole week is exciting for our family. This week we fly again. We are flying back to the South. First, just the boys and I are going. Alan will join us later. I will get to go to Destin TWO times, once with my mom, and once with Alan and the boys.
I’ve had a sore throat all week. Thursday I couldn’t even read out loud to the boys without coughing, so I had to cancel reading time. Joshua had all of his brothers stop what they were doing right there and pray for their mom to feel better. LOVE!!
I took this photo from the boys’ window. JD and Dan love to play in their dirt pile, usually with cars. Joshua was eating watermelon, which he consumes unbelievable amounts of. Caleb was repairing the trampoline net, where he had ripped it straight across.
JD has earned the name “the Great Communicator”. This boy cracks me up. He is so good at getting his point across. He always knows exactly what he wants and finds the words to get that across. Sometimes we have to guess…
“Eck. Uck. Ruck!”
“Back?”
*Scowl.* “No,” in his cute little tiny voice.
“Truck?”
*Smile. Giggle.* Then he runs in the direction of whatever he is currently calling a truck. Any vehicle that is not a car is a truck, even motorcycles.
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“Juice?” (By far, his favorite word)
“No, JD, you’ve already had enough juice. I will pour you some milk. You need to drink a little milk.”
*Scowl.* Then he almost howls, in a fretful, fretful voice, “Noooo! Juice. Juice.”
Poor dear. I don’t drink milk either, but disappointment is just one of those things you have to learn how to deal with. Besides, if he drank all the juice he wanted that’d be a never-ending case of runny poop….
By the way, JD has finally fully recovered from his ear infection and is sleeping through the night again. 🙂 Hallelujah! By the fourth kid, I’ve just forgotten to worry about sleep issues. I just go with the phases, and eventually, “This too will pass.” It takes a long time to fully recover from colds sometimes, and sleeping is the hardest when you have snot in the back of your throat.
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One last thing I’m excited about this week:
Money Saving Mom is teaching a course on increasing productivity by “making over your mornings”. Oh, you’d better believe I will be there!
Money Saving Mom is one of my favorite blogs. Crystal has accomplished an insane amount to include writing several best sellers, maintaining a successful website, keeping a tidy house, and home schooling her 3 children. As you can imagine, I feel like I can learn a lot from her!
For my full review on this Make Over Your Morning course after I took it, click here.
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Congratulations to the boys on their end of year awards. They really learned a lot this year.
Congratulations tob the boys on their end of year awards. They have learned a lot this year!
Thank you! They really did!
What beautiful words. I agree that sometimes I loose track of the fact that he will guide me :-)
Thanks! I think we all do.
Wonderful words...I don't like to say "me time", I guess it's some personal issue with sounding selfish...I do however, like and need a little time everyday to "recharge" and "refocus" :)
I love waking up really early or staying up really late...if you do both...it's not enjoyable though. So glad I found your blog on the Manic Monday Blog Hop!
Oh, I hear ya. I've paid for doing both!
I definitely get it about the restless spirit feelings. And I struggle with saying "alone time." Often when I get it, I don't even want it and I miss the family. It's a balance.
I hope you're feeling better! Colds should not be allowed in the spring.
Ha! Yeah, if I'm alone too long I start caning my husband, "When are you coming home? ??" :)
Wow, I needed to read your blog this morning! I feel like I get that restless spirit often and the thing that always helps is reading the bible. And I agree that me time is usually time to listen to the Holy Spirit. I should try taking a nice, long walk too. Exercise helps too because sometimes I just need to get some energy out. Thank you for sharing!
Oh good! You are a kindred spirit!
Ah me time, I am so bad at claiming that. I think that those quiet moments of reflection help you to more clearly see the big picture. Which in the daily grind of four kids, the noise and the hub bub gets a little murky to see.
It may sound selfish, but I am pretty good at demanding 'me' time. :) For exactly the reason you mentioned, it helps to clearly see the big picture. Go get you some. :)