In the dark and quiet of the wee hours after my dear hubby leaves for work, I remember one of the good reasons I get up with him to get his breakfast and pack a lunch.
When the kids were small, and our budget, it seemed, smaller, I wanted to make sure he had a lunch to take because otherwise there wasn’t going to be a lunch for him. And I felt it was a small way I could let him know I appreciated him being faithful to this thing called “supporting the family”. I had the privilege of staying home to raise and homeschool our 5 kids. The least I could do was to make sure the man was fed! A secondary, but no less important facet to this challenging ritual was the fact that I had a few minutes to myself before the chaos of our day began.
Now that our kids are older, and don’t feel the need to get up so early (thank you, Jesus!), this time has taken on a different meaning. As the light begins to creep into the sky, what I hear is………quiet. This quiet has become as a balm to my very soul. In our constantly connected world, I must purpose to find time to be unconnected. To listen, to hear my heart beat, to take care of myself, to ponder, to dream, to pray. This quiet is an organic way of waking up, to take time to set my intentions for the day and live out of that sense of order.
We don’t always have the time or resources to take time away. But we can find time every day to regroup and recharge our hearts and live our lives intentionally. This looks different for each one of us, at different times and places in our journey. Do you have intentional quiet in your life? I would love to hear what that looks like for you.
