Slow Down

"You have made my days a mere handbreadth;
the span of my years is as nothing before you.
Each man's life is but a breath." Psalm 39:5

Life is so rushed sometimes. Life is rushed a lot of the times for some people. Our life seems to go in spurts. We have weeks where we have nothing going on, and then weeks where every day is packed, and all we can do is keep going forward. While we're busy rushing around, getting our children to this or that, and taking care of other obligations, and then on top of that there's laundry and housework to be done, we can get frantic. We can lose our focus on each other and on God, and I suspect that can be the demise of many a marriage or family. In this day of constantly being busy, it can be so important to set aside time to spend with people.

I talk a lot about setting aside time to spend with God. That's almost easier to me sometimes. It's easy for me to wake in the morning and give the first few minutes of my day to God. The whole family is waking and getting ready for their day, and we all kind of do that on our own. But actually setting aside time to spend with my husband doesn't get a daily priority. Or setting aside time to just spend with Abigail, who spends the day at school. Never mind all of us doing something together...yet that's something that we really need to make sure we are doing. Just us. Not us as a family going to Abigail's dance things, or us as a family going to one of Andy's things, or us as a family going to church together. We need to consciously set aside time to do something all together, like playing a game or going for a walk.

"Teach us to number our days aright,
that we may gain a heart of wisdom." Psalm 90:12

In the same way, we've made it a priority to schedule in time with our Christian family as well. We have set aside every Sunday evening to spend with our friends in Christ to discuss His word and life in general. We've made that a priority, because if we didn't, we would always be saying to our friends, "we should get together sometime" or we would pull out or calendars and simply not find a day. It's important to take the time to slow down and relax and spend it encouraging each other in our walks. If we didn't have our friends to help us out when times are low, we would spend so much time in despair and worry. Instead, God has given us these wonderful people to help encourage and offer support.

"Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others." Philippians 2:4

We are a social creature, God made us that way. It's so important to take the time and focus on that. To slow down and take a break from all the business and the running around to truly appreciate and support each other- both within and outside of our families.