The Hustle Bustle Is Over

The temperature is around 60* and we are having a BEAUTIFUL day today.  As you can see, Kitty is enjoying it just as much as we are. We are just taking it easy today, relaxing now that the hustle and bustle is over with.  BLECH! I really hate the frazzled feeling we have allowed ourselves to get this time of year.  Today we are getting caught up on some laundry/dishes and doing some crafting.  Skippy is getting ready to grill and use his new BBQ Pit Boys knife he got for Christmas.

Thank you, Lord, for this gorgeous day to not have to rush around but to take it slow and enjoy my family!

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS...........

NON-NEGOTIABLE

On Thursday, while waiting to pick up Mouse (my granddaughter, formerly known as Doodle Bug) from school, I was thinking of what my word for 2017 should be. Lots of words came to mind, but the one that stuck out the most was one I heard a young woman talk about this morning on the Christian radio station, WPER.....NON-NOGOTIABLE - not open to negotiation or discussion.  They had an audio clip by Christine Caine about how she keeps from getting burnt out and not feeling frazzled all the time with having such a busy schedule. Her key tips are: 

1) Make sure you are in the will of God, making sure you do what HE wants you to do and not what everybody else wants you to do.
2) Be healthy, nourish you body
3) Isaiah 40:31 - "But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint!" The Bible promises us that we shall RUN not to be weary and we shall WALK and not faint.
4) Being burnt out is not from what you are supposed to be doing, and what we are supposed to be doing is listening to our spiritual disciplines: being in the Word, praying, being in the fellowship of other believers, etc. Through these things, the spirit of God sustains us and strengthens us.
5) Have and make those spiritual disciplines....NON-NEGOTIABLE!
6) Make sure quiet time with GOD is a priority as when we get busy we tend to push that and our studies to the side.

This all reminded me of what my husband said one day after he came home from work and I told him I had not done much of anything with the house because I spent most of the day in bed trying to keep warm and doing my Bible study. He said, "We only have ONE THING that we need to make sure we do each day and that's to spend time with the Lord!" And you know what, he was right!

So, as you read earlier, my word(s) for 2017 will be NON-NEGOTIABLE because nothing will interfere anymore with my quiet time with the Lord. I know that putting Him first will empower me to lead the life that HE intended for me to live!