QUIET

It's very early in the morning...one of the best times of the day!  It's still and quiet and so very peaceful.  Since I tend to be very productive, early in the morning, (not usually this early, however!)  I decided to make the best of it and write a little.

Back at the first of the year, one of our dear friends, a spiritual mentor and fellow-blogger, challenged us, her readers, to choose a word, a goal, a resolution-of-sorts as a theme for this year.  I asked God and then listened for His answer, as to what He had in mind for me.  I don't always do that first:  being typically human, I sometimes wrack my brain first, seeing what I can come up with (usually a very poor choice.)  This time, for some reason, I asked Him first, and immediately...instantaneously...the word "quiet" came to me.

Now, I LOVE peace, tranquility, stillness...but I can be very chatty and get very caught up in scenarios that are far from quiet.  We attend lots of ballgames and other sporting events, and crowds can be very noisy.  Watching television is hardly ever peaceful.  Shopping malls, traffic, concerts:  lots going on there.  And with a two-year-old grandchild, things are hardly ever quiet, and we wouldn't have him any other way!  There's nothing quite like being around the playful exuberance of a happy, healthy, squealing child!  But I do love my peaceful times, and I am learning to embrace them from a more spiritual perspective.

For it's in the still, quiet moments of my days that I clearly hear God...I feel His presence...I connect with His spirit.  It happens at other times, too, of course...as in moments of praise in worship; during thunderstorms or torrential downpours; or during a stirring sermon or speech.  But it's when I am alone with my thoughts and quiet in my soul that I best hear Him.

I've often said that I was born in the wrong age and time.  Part of me just longs for times where there is less technology, loud music, noisy cars and trucks and planes and trains.  Being next to a car at a stop light with a reverberating stereo...during the previews at the movie theatre...being around shreaking middle school girls (got to love them!), shrillness of most any kind can almost send me over the edge!  I just long for a place and time where quiet prevails, where we can get back in touch with God-sounds:  birds chirping, crickets and other creatures of the night singing their melodies, where the sounds of the wind rushing or water flowing or leaves rustling prevail.  It isn't going to happen; I know that.  Not very often, at least.  But when those rare times do happen...or when I take advantage of the still, quiet moments of the early morn, then I am blessed beyond measure.  My day gets off to a wonderful start.  I get in touch with my Lord and my God from the very get-go.  Prayers flow, and meditation happens, and my very being is filled with God and the things He has in mind for me.  "Be still and know that I am God," says the Good Book.  How very true.

So, here's to quietness in life...times where we unplug from busy ole 2012 and just revel in the aura of God's beautiful stillness.  Quiet times breed peaceful hearts.  And peaceful hearts breed satisfied spirits...what better way to mirror the One who created us and the One whom we follow.  Hope you find some quiet times today...and this year.  THANK YOU, Anne, for the challenge.  I, for one, very much needed that and so grateful for my word:  QUIET.