GOAL {30 Days of Writing}

This last week I started a study called Breathe, by Priscilla Shirer. The book, or journal more so, talks about how we need to make room for Sabbath.

This doesn't refer just to one day a week, taking a Sabbath on Sunday let's say. It also doesn't mean just taking a break to do whatever we want because "we deserve it".  

God created Sabbath - a time for rest. He meant for a Sabbath time, those times of rest that we take, to be a gift to us.

Here's an excerpt from the book that I read this morning, where she is quoting another author who was writing about Genesis 2.

"The words: 'On the seventh day God finished his work' (Genesis 2:2), seem to be a puzzle....We would surely expect the Bible to tell us that on the sixth day God finished His work. Obviously, the ancient rabbis concluded, there was an act of creation on the seventh day. Just as heaven and earth were created in six days, menulza was created on the Sabbath. After six days of creation - what did the universe still lack? Menuha. Came the Sabbath, came menuha, and the universe was complete. Menuha, which we usually render with "rest" means here much more than withdrawal from labour and exertion, more than freedom from toil, strain or activity of any kind. It's not a negative concept but something real and intrinsically positive. This must have been the view of the ancient rabbis if they believed that it took a special act of creation to bring it into being, that the universe would be incomplete without it. What was created on the seventh day? Tranquility, serenity, peace and repose."

Maybe you've figured out by now what this has to do with goals. Well, we have a lot of goals in life....goals for our marriage, our family, our ministry, our life, our future, etc. And I could list plenty of them here.

But I seem to naturally be the type of person that finds it hard to rest. Don't get me wrong, I really want to and get irritable if I don't have time (take time) to step away and especially spend that time with God - in nature, where be it. But it's hard to say "no" when someone needs you, to not feel that you should be "doing" something, to feel that it's ok to take time alone or even with just your family.

Daily communication with God has always been important to me, but through this I am feeling refreshed in being reminded about taking extended times of "tranquility, serenity, peace, and repose".  Those sound like words that just draw you in, begging you to to put up a hammock over a creek, with a slight breeze, stare up at the clouds, and hum a tune or two of worship.

 Rest looks different to everyone. To me it is restful to be in that type of peaceful place, and it is also restful to be surrounded by family and close friends where you just can be. I don't think this means we need to always sit quietly in a peaceful spot, but I also think that is necessary so that we can hear God and just "be".

Anyways, just to introduce you to the group of ladies I'm studying this with - this is a group of missionary ladies from around Guadalajara. We are from several different mission organizations and we meet weekly to study, pray, and encourage each other.

There are some that are missing in this pic as they are away right now, but I love the mix in the group, as there are missionaries that have been here for years and years and are soon to retire, there are some that have served in other countries before Gdl, there are some of us that are MK's, there are a couple of short-termers, and some that are still very new to Gdl.

We don't normally wear too much pink.....one of them just became cancer-free so we were celebrating :)

{To see all posts in this series, click on the label "30DaysofWriting" below the title}