Take Time for Yourself
Terri Pulleyblank of Harrison Township, MI, USA
Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your judgments are like the great deep; you save humans and animals alike, O Lord. How precious is your steadfast love, O God! All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings. -Psalm 36:5-7
People ask questions daily. Is it this or that? What or when? Now or then? Yes or no? Can you or can’t you? Will you or won’t you? Why or how? Would ya? Should ya? Could ya?
Our jobs, children, families, and friends constantly pull us in many directions. It leaves our heads spinning as we try to do things for other people or for work. We often forget about ourselves in the dizziness. We are on our own back burner because it seems everything and everyone else is more important than we are!
I hate to dampen dreams you might have of a peaceful future. However, there will never be a perfect time! The time is now! I know the thinking, “After the kids are gone, I am going to do this or that. Then after the grandkids have grown…or maybe after I retire…” Your place on the list is always somewhere down the road.
My family reunion caused me to think about time. It was so great to see everybody-to reminisce about old times and share current news. Then I thought, “Seriously, it’s been since 1973? Precious years go by in the blink of an eye!”
Consider yourself as a precious flower garden that needs nourishment to flourish (taking care of our body and mind and finding time for ourselves). What would you do to nurture this beautiful flower garden? For starters we need to “weed” out certain things in our lives. We need to care for our “roots” (those things that form us and our values and traditions). We need to examine our relationship with God. Then ask again the questions above. We may have different and decisive answers.
Take time for yourself-get to know God, pray, rest your eyes and mind, do spiritual practices, walk, read…or don’t do anything. After all, it’s your garden, a gift from God. Take yourself off the back burner. The cat’s paw prints are still on the coffee table, dust is still on the piano, the laundry still sits undone-let it wait. It doesn’t matter. Remember what matters most.
Prayer Phrase
“Led by the Holy Spirit, we work with God and others to restore peace (shalom) to creation” (https://www.cofchrist.org/enduring-principles).
Spiritual Practice
Embodying God’s Shalom
Find a way to express and embody God’s shalom. Begin by prayerfully listening to your longing for peace and wholeness. Become silent and imagine you can hear the groaning of the Earth’s people, nations, and creatures. Prayerfully open yourself to God’s yearning for peace and the divine vision of shalom.
What images, feelings, and words come to you? What prayer for peace comes to you from your time of listening? Speak or write this prayer. What act of justice, kindness, healing, or peacemaking does God invite you to consider this day?
Today’s Prayer for Peace
Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.
