The Voices In Your Head

Which voices are you paying the closest attention to today?  Take time to listen to what God has to say.  Also, take intentional time to listen to your spouse, your children, your parents, your friends.  Moments and words are precious, don't take them for granted.  Once they are gone, they are gone.  

Disconnect. 

Reconnect.  

Gifts For Today

A gift silent, a gift still, a gift strong. 




Silent leaves tumbling to the ground and dancing across the landscape. The stillness in a lake, calm and peaceful. Strong coffee.

Take The Challenge

Are you up for the challenge? 

Take A Look

Slow down, look around, breathe it in.  See the beauty around you each and every day.  

Dare to Simplify

Take some time this weekend to relax, slow down, enjoy the sights and sounds of Summer.  When is the last time you were quiet enough to hear the birds sing? I am listening to several right now.  Stop and look at some flowers and see the intricate details woven through their petals and leaves.  Creation is filled with many wonderful gifts, open them up and enjoy the gifts you have been given.  

Yesterday, I enjoyed a slower day than what my schedule usually allows.  I thoroughly enjoyed sitting on my front porch, listening to water flow through our fountain, reading a book, sipping iced coffee, petting my dog, and looking at the flowers.  We all need to take some down time in our week and just soak life in.  Busyness tends to rob us of the simple gifts that surround us.  Taking time to unplug and unwind can calm our hearts, and help us to find joy in the simple things.  Take some time to put technology aside this weekend, and unplug.  Listen.  Relax.  See the beauty that surrounds you. Be intentional about enjoying the little things in life.  

Disconnect to Reconnect

Will you take some time to disconnect over the weekend, and reconnect to real life?  

Unplug

Silence.  Stillness

When you think of those words, what do you feel?  Relief?  Tension?  Uneasy?  Peace?  Desire to have, or the need to run far from anything resembling them?

In our loud and busy world, silence and stillness are something we tend to forget about, and on a rare occasion when we do have a moment of complete silence, I have noticed it can make many people uneasy, they don't know how to just sit and be still in silence and enjoy the peace that surrounds them.  

The book of Psalm's tells us to BE STILL....   If we are running around, filling our heads with continual media outlets, always connected to social media, gaming, noise, we can't be still.  The verse in Psalm 46:10 goes on to say: "be still and know I am God." To me, that makes sense because if our minds are always busy, always connected, how can it be quiet and focused on anything.  Instead, it becomes numb because we put it on overload, we don't think, we don't read, we don't put down the phones, computers, tablets, or shut off the TV, to just be, to reconnect with ourselves, our loved ones, and God.  If we did disconnect for a day or two, we would realize how absolutely exhausted our minds truly are, because they were not designed to have continual noise and input.  They were designed to rest.

"We need to find God, and He cannot be found in noise and restlessness.  God is the friend of silence.  See how nature--trees, flowers, grass--grows in silence; see the stars, the moon, and the sun, how they move in silence.  We need silence to be able to touch souls."   ~Mother Teresa 

We all need to get some silence and stillness in our lives, to disconnect and reconnect with ourselves, others, and God.  The more we clutter our brains with social media, gaming, TV, noise, the less we know how to think logically because we are being influenced by all the voices going in our head on a continual basis.    The more we fill our heads with noise, the less we hear the beauty of creation-birds singing, children laughing, the wind howling, waves crashing into the shoreline.  The busier we are, the less we notice beauty..sunsets, glistening snow, flowers, eagles soaring, the beauty in a smile. When we quiet the noise and still the busyness, we can see and appreciate God's creation, we can think clearly, and we can connect with others and with God.

Take some time and put in your schedule time for YOU.  Time for you to disconnect.  Turn your phone off, or leave it somewhere away from where you are.  Leave all devices that connect you to noise behind.  Take time to just sit and be quiet.  Time to listen.  Time to observe beauty.  Time to connect with loved ones, and with God.  During this time, don't go over your to do lists, just sit and be still.  Look around and find the beauty that God has placed around you.  It's not easy at first, it can actually be uncomfortable, but the more you do it, the easier it becomes.  

We all need this in our lives.  I disconnected some last week, not completely, but took some aspects of social media away, and I must say I really enjoyed it.  I had more time, so much more time.  I read a book.  I thought.  I wrote. I was quiet.  I enjoyed the beauty of creation. I found some of the creative outlets that being over-connected shuts down in us.  I spent time with loved ones.  I chose to do it.  I chose to disconnect.  It is a choice.  It's worth it.   

One small step of disconnection can make a difference.  What step will you take this week to disconnect, and reconnect with your thoughts, with others, with God?  





"I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction.  The world will have a generation of idiots." ~ Albert Einstein