Linger in His Love

​Every weekday morning, I'm up around 4am, despite having been woken up by my still-nursing toddler at least once during the night. I'm up taking care of the babe and getting ready for work. After an occasional, quick DECAF coffee run, I arrive at work, sometime between 6:30 and 7:30, where my day is as unpredictable, wild, and eventful as any middle school teacher's might be. 

By the time 3pm rolls around, I'm rushing out of the school to get home to the baby. As soon as I've got him, it's time to rush to the other school to get our older son! We often swing by the grocery store, library, or playground on the way home. Then it's time for indoor play or outdoor adventures, depending on the weather and our moods. 

Time seems to fly by before it's time to make dinner, feed the kids, and then clean up all of the crumbs and dishes. Then it's time for me to get them both bathed, dressed in pjs, read to, and tucked in bed with a kiss and prayers and lots of love. 

At the end of the day, I'm left with only about an hour or so to myself before my own bedtime, and I usually try to cram as much into this time as is physically possible. Pick up the toys. Vacuum the carpets. Finish the laundry. Work on lesson plans. Fiddle with duties for my internship (which has now morphed into helping lead our church's MOPS!). Take a shower. Speed read through one of the many novels on my list. Play a game on my phone.

Eventually, I close my eyes, and by the time I open them again, the routine starts all over.

I'd be lying if I said I didn't love it. Yes, it's exhausting and full, but I love it.

Nevertheless, tonight I was reading a blog post written by one of my dear friends from church, and her words about God's love for us kept dancing around in my heart, the message lingering long after I closed the tab and put down my phone.

I just kept thinking... what if I just PAUSED? What if I just turned off the internal voice in my head that tells me to DO and GO, and I just stopped? What if I just allowed myself to rest in His Word? To linger in His love?

"Actively seek the Word of God to know who God
says you are, who God calls you, and what He thinks of you.

We have to carve out time to mediate on these truths, speak them,
and be still in His presence. He will draw us near and love on us."

- Riann Ballenger for Above All Else

​(Click here to read HER full post!)

It's so easy to get caught up in a cycle of productivity. I feel a constant pressure to do more, to accomplish more, to get more done. 

But Jesus never lived His life that way; yes, Jesus did a LOT, but He also knew when to rest in the presence of Father God.

If God Himself rested in the Father's love through prayer, how much more should we also push pause to dwell on God?

I'm thankful to be reminded that in the midst of all the busyness of life, especially during this coming holiday season when my calendar feels that it might burst, that we mustn't lose sight of the reason for it all. We must set our hearts and our minds and our eyes on God. We must dwell in His presence. We must soak up His word. We must linger in His love.

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