Stillness.

"Be still and know that I am God."

Ps. 46:10

"Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him.."

Ps. 37:7

We had a wonderful, wonderful Christmas. We spent the 23rd and Christmas Eve at Aaron's parent's, enjoyed the Christmas eve service with them and then headed to my parents for Christmas Day and the day after. We thoroughly enjoyed our time with family, celebration of the birth of our Savior, and we got some wonderful gifts. The Wii from Aaron's parents and my cookbooks from mine topped my lists. Be looking for some posts on my new cooking adventures!

But can I tell you a secret? I love the time after Christmas before New Year's almost more than Christmas holidays. When I was a child, the post-christmas absence of gifts and family was always a let down. All the excitement was gone and what did you have to look forward too? Now, I find the slower pace, lack of pressure to cook, buy and go a welcome reprieve. I want to hole up in my house and read, plan, reprioritize and organize to my little hearts content! My mind is spinning with ideas and thoughts of things I would like to do or do differently in the coming year. Right on cue, our lesson in Sunday School this morning was on learning to be still before the Lord. Priscilla Shirer, in her study "He Speaks to Me" used the example from John 6: 10 where Jesus, as he's about to feed the 5000, told the people to "sit down" so they could be fed. I have a hard time sitting down. But I have an even harder time stilling my mind. In fact, it seems like the stiller my body gets sometimes, the faster my mind goes. But, as Priscilla said, sometimes God needs us to sit down, and be still, so he can fill us up. More than I need anything, sometimes I just need to be filled. We run and go and do on empty so much! We end up settling for the leftovers and overflow of what God gives others instead of what He tells us personally. So, in this time of year, I'm trying to learn a little about stillness. And hopefully, in the coming year, I'll be able to find time for some stillness as well. I hope you do too! What do you do to find time to be still before the Lord? How has he worked through that time for you?