If you’d like to join in the book club for Journeys of Faithfulness by Sarah Clarkson, feel free to join in at anytime. You can find the reading schedule for the 12 week book club at the end of this post, along with additional printables for each week.
Our lives today are filled with busyness. There is always something to do. Places to go. A child to tend to. A meal to make. Laundry to wash and fold {repeat}.
Sitting quietly is something that I do not do often. To be rather honest, sitting still makes me feel like something is wrong – like I am being wasteful or missing something.
Recently my husband was away for the weekend and my parents asked to take the kids overnight and I was left alone for the night.
The stillness may have been a wee bit unnerving.
It did make me so much more aware of the point of this chapter though ~ sitting still and actually meditating on the Word of God. Setting aside a dedicated time each day with NO distractions {children may be excluded from this ~ grins}.
Right now as I sit writing this post, I am surrounded by media and external buzz. There is a video playing that the kids and I are watching. My phone sits next to me as a friend texts me. My email is dinging every now and then to let me know I have a message. TweetDeck is throwing tweets at me left and right…in short, there is no quiet or still.
This is frequently the case for me ~ and I’ll be the first to admit it. My goal this week has been to set aside a specific time to FOCUS on my relationship with Christ. Stuff my phone under a pillow. Find a quiet nook to sit in the silence of my room or another relaxing spot and just take time to be in relationship with God.
In the past I’ve allowed other things to become a distraction for me – the phone ringing in the middle of my devotion time and running to answer it. A random thought that spurred me to interrupt what I was doing to focus on something else. In short – removing my focus from what I was doing instead of ignoring the external to focus on the internal and quiet my heart.
So far, nothing in my home has fallen apart during time of stillness {grins}. If anything, I’m more relaxed and better able to do the things in my day that need to be done.
How do you find time to relax and focus? What practical ways do you cultivate a quiet spirit in your life?
A Few Book Club Links
Be sure to download a copy of the journal pages to go along with the book. For those of you reading on a Kindle or reading with your daughters, these will come in handy! Each week, I’ll be sharing the printables for the next week, so check back weekly for updates.
~ Journeys of Faithfulness book club Facebook page – come share your thoughts during the week!
~ Download a few printables here: Binder Cover, book club reading schedule, Week 1 Journal Pages, and Week 2 Journal Pages, Week 3 Journal Pages, Week 4 Journal Pages, Week 5 Journal Pages…more coming soon!
Link Up Your Posts!
If you are a participating in the book club and are blogging your thoughts, please link up your posts below! We’d love to stop by and see what God is revealing to you through each chapter.
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