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Today, I am looking for Him and taking time to notice in the midst of deadlines, duties and messes. I will never have a day just like this again to notice and celebrate with a grateful heart.
Today, amidst hours of work and writing, Joy and I took time to walk and chat for a couple of miles together. Wonderful way to celebrate our moments together before she goes.
Where no oxen are, the manger is clean, But much revenue comes by the strength of the ox." Prov. 14:4
My sweet, wonderful kindred spirit Joy is still home from Scotland where she is studying, but only for about a week. I enjoy her company so much. There are more messes right now because we are all working a lot, eating a lot, drinking a lot, but when we have free time, we spend a lot of friend time just enjoying each other. I don't worry so much because I know through my whole life, that at 63, the messes come and go, but my precious ones will leave soon enough--and then I will have a hole in my heart. I share some past thoughts from my quiet time chair in my second story bedroom that looks out on the mountain terrain of my 7200-foot altitude home.
Do you agree with my premise? What are you taking time for amidst your messes?
I am sitting in my little quiet time chair here in my Oxford home, coffee in hand. From my wide window, I look out on blooming pink bushes, spidery trees, and a college dormitory filled with students from all corners of the world. In every home we live in, I choose windows that look out on the most beautiful natural scene, so that I can have some of His life-stuff to bring perspective, peace and quiet to my soul each morning as I meet with Him. This habit has changed the trajectory of my life because it gives me time to move into the day with purpose, perspective, choices of how I will live well with those demands and people around me who will all want my help and attention all the time.
In front of me is a pile of books scattered over a coffee table. There is also a couch pillow thrown onto the floor, a couple of pairs of shoes left where they were taken off, (always boots in this season of rain in Oxford, a wilting potted plant in desperate need of water, Lily’s soft but slightly stained blanket right where she dropped it the other day before she went back home. And a half-drunk cup of hot chocolate from the night before with Joy. And this is just the eight feet in front of my chair!
The rest of the house is much the same-- life messes in the midst of order and beauty. As the proverb says, “Where there are no oxen, the stalls are clean.” I comfort myself daily with the fact that I have six or seven oxen living in my home most of the time, and thus my stalls are not always clean, but my house is full. My world is always a mixture of beauty and mess, order and piles of things not yet subdued into order.
Sometimes the circumstances of life are like our home--messes and joys, fears and blessings all in the same breath.
But it is what we see and how we perceive what is happening that will determine our comfort or our despair.
I have purposed daily to choose to enjoy the beauty of the treasures He has placed in my path, because when I look for His fingerprints and whispers amidst the messes, my heart changes and begins often to sing with the rhythms and chords He has placed there.
Today, join me and my friend, Jane Biel as we have a conversation about beauty amidst messes and look at the beautiful table she set for Clay and me before I left Colorado.
