“Slow?” 🤔 ”You want a bracelet to say ‘slow’?” was my daughter’s response when I presented my request.
Yes, yes I do. Actually I NEED a bracelet on my wrist to remind me to be slow. And here’s what that means to me and why I need it so much:
- Sometimes I get so wrapped up in projects with God that I begin to lose myself –
lose the version of me that I am,
the Daylene that I actually like,
the one that is only found and around by spending lots of 𝓅ℯ𝓇𝓈ℴ𝓃𝒶𝓁 time with Him.
So sometimes I need to be reminded-
to take a break from Facebook,
take a break from projects
…even together-projects…
to 𝒿𝓊𝓈𝓉 𝒷ℯ together.
This requires me slowing down.
Remembering that my assignments are not a race. Allowing myself time… not just to seek His hand (His provision, His blessing, even though I am depending on Him for those things in this season)… but to simply seek His face. Because I love Him. And because I need that “face time” with Him. Just like I need it with my earthly husband, Brett. And even though Brett and I are together almost 24/7 in this season, and we work on a lot of things together, and we spend time with our family together, all of that can NOT take the place of our time together where we are 𝒿𝓊𝓈𝓉 𝒷ℯ𝒾𝓃ℊ 𝒶𝓁ℴ𝓃ℯ 𝓉ℴℊℯ𝓉𝒽ℯ𝓇. That time, in fact, is not only indisposable but it 𝒻𝓊ℯ𝓁𝓈 me for the rest! The same is true of my alone time with Jesus. I can spend all my other time with an awareness of His presence as I do my chores, do my work, hang out with my peeps…but it can’t take the place of our alone time, and when I allow that time to be squeezed out by the rest, I suddenly find myself feeling 𝓇ℯ𝓈𝓉𝓁ℯ𝓈𝓈 and irritable and not ”myself”— not the version of me that I like anyway. (The version of me that is only enabled by Him.) - In addition to that, and probably as a result of my allowing that time to decrease instead of increase, as I aim to do more Kingdom work…I find that I am quick to react in ways that I don’t want to. I get annoyed more easily. I get offended more easily. I get my feelings pierced more easily. And that was happening recently, which is one of the reasons I knew I needed to take a break from Facebook.
Because if I’m honest I can hide, can scroll, can “tune out” of real life and get lost in my feed, trying to FEED some inner hunger subconsciously. (Wow. The fact that it’s called our newsFEED really just hit me for the first time right now.)
But the thing about the newsfeed, or anything actually that we are trying to feed our emptiness with, is that it will never ever satisfy us. Because only He can. I can scroll forever and never feel settled. Or I can allow Him to scroll my soul and tell me exactly why I’m feeling angry or empty or offended or hurt or uneasy, and He will. And He will also fill me with Himself – whether or not any of the circumstances that cause me to feel those ways changed or not. He is AMAZING!
Why do I resist this sometimes? Why don’t I remember to go to Him 𝒻𝒾𝓇𝓈𝓉? Why don’t I see that what I’m craving isn’t the affirmation of people but of “MY PERSON” (Jesus) even more than of my husband who is my favorite person on this earth? I don’t know. But I’m hoping my bracelet will help me “slow” down each day going forward so I don’t lose sight of this.
- Lastly, He gave me an acronym for SLOW, among the many things He gave me this week in my moments of alone time with Him.
S
L
O
W
Stop
Looking to
Others to define your
Worth!
Only God gets to grade me.
Only God gets to define me.
People are fickle- and that includes my own self.
We are also wired with the need for someone to always love us and always be pleased with us, and if we examine the world we can see for ourselves how humans tend to jump around from place to place, relationship to relationship, friendship to friendship, job to job, church to church, looking for 𝓈ℴ𝓂ℯℴ𝓃ℯ, 𝒶𝓃𝓎ℴ𝓃ℯ who will love them like this.
And we never find it. Not forever. It may start that way but sooner or later they’ll let us down and we will let them down. Because perfect love only comes from a perfect person, and there’s only ONE of those who ever existed! ✝️ But the Good News- literally- is that there’s enough of Him to go around!
We can ALL have that relationship with Him!
He can be “MY PERSON” and YOUR person and everyone else’s person too, because of the Holy Spirit!
I can’t and don’t want to share my earthly husband. He’s mine. All mine. But I CAN and WANT TO share my heavenly husband! Because He isn’t limited! He can be “all mine” and still be “all yours” and it doesn’t take anything away from me! In fact, it adds to me, it blesses me, when I see others loving Jesus and being deeply loved by Him! It’s one of the best joys in this life!
——
- Do you feel overwhelmed? Maybe even with Kingdom work that you love?
- Do you need a getaway?
- Have you been unconsciously trying to getaway by vegging out in your newsfeed or in any other hiding place? (Maybe alcohol, drugs, sleep, shopping, work, volunteer work, whatever…)
- Can you not get enough to fill you? Do you always want more?
- Do you find yourself restless, irritable, and maybe even reacting quickly in ways that you don’t like? Knee-JERK reactions like I talked about?
- Do you want someone, anyone to love you perfectly and always believe the best of you even when you’re not acting like your best?
- Have you left relationships because they can’t give that to you? (Sometimes people make us see the worst in ourselves. Sometimes we do this to ourselves worse than anyone! Sometimes we would “leave ourselves” if we could.)
But the good news is we don’t have to!
We don’t have to leave our relationships.
We don’t have to leave our selves (life.)
We don’t have to turn off these desires either.
We just have to 𝓈𝓁ℴ𝓌 down and remember where to go for these needs to be met perfectly.
It’s 𝒜ℒ𝒲𝒜𝒴𝒮 Jesus.
It always was what we were missing before we had Him.
It always will be, when we feel that empty “missing something” feeling.
We NEED 𝒥ℯ𝓈𝓊𝓈, and 𝓂ℴ𝓇ℯ ℴ𝒻 ℋ𝒾𝓂!
I can never get enough!
Thankfully, He never runs out!
From Full 