Embrace the Small

It was a beautiful fall day for our Devo Outing this week - the perfect kind of weather for a drive over to Hitchcock Nature Center for a few hours of quiet. My hubby and I have been setting aside our Tuesday afternoons for a few years now - a few hours each week to pull aside from the busyness and the noise, and head to a quiet place. Sometimes we drive to a nearby lake, or one of the parks in the area; this week we drove across the Missouri River to a beautiful nature center area. When the weather is warm enough, it is always outdoors where we spend our Tuesday afternoons ... in colder weather, it is often in our basement family room by the warmth of our wood stove.

But wherever we spend our few hours, the space becomes sacred, as our souls are nourished and refreshed. By the quiet, by a ceasing of our work, by reminders of how life is not about us and all that we do, but life is about God and His presence within us.

This week one of the books I brought along to read as we sat for a few hours along the beautiful autumn-colored hillside, was Simply Tuesday: Small-Moment Living in a Fast-Moving World. An absolutely perfect place to read the last few chapters of this amazing book.

I don't know about you, but it is so easy to find ourselves drawn into the pressures and pulls of our world, striving to be noticed more, to accomplish more, to make a name for ourselves. And it is good to pull aside and to remember that smallness is good. As Emily Freeman says in her book, it is the small moments of our days that string together to make up a life. It is in the daily moments of our lives that we walk with God, and that He uses to mold us into His image, which then in turn, blesses those around us. 

It is the small moments that make up our lives.

These are thoughts that occupy my mind and heart often,

returning to them over and over again - 

to keep my focus on walking closely with God, in the present,

to embrace my smallness, and to focus on His bigness.

Walk with Me, and work with Me -

watch how I do it.

Learn the unforced rhythms of grace...

Keep company with Me,

and you'll learn to live freely and lightly.

(from Matthew 11:28-30 MSG, favorite verses of both my hubby and me) 

To know that the work will be completed by the Spirit of God and not by my effort means I can sit down on the inside as my hands are fast at work. It means I don't have to keep pace with a fast-moving world even as I am engaged in the activity of it. (Simply Tuesday)

Simply Tuesday has been a gift to my soul. And it was a gift to finish reading the last few chapters yesterday, on a Tuesday, during our weekly Devo Outing, in the gorgeous setting of rolling hills covered with beautifully colored autumn foliage. Where the beauty of God's creation made a person feel the enormity of how very small we are. In a very delightful way. 

* * * * * * *

Thank you, Emily Freeman, for putting into words what I so often find myself thinking on. Your words have given clarity to what my soul longs for; you have taken truths from His words and painted them in colors that bring them to deeper life in my heart. 

Click below to read four other posts I have written while reading through Simply Tuesday.

Living Small - Control or Rest - Listen, Love, and Pray - Walking with Our Smallness

Linking up with:
Bloom (in)courage book club