Throughout my dancing years, there were many days when ballet class felt monotonous. Same set of plies, same set of tendues, rond de jambes over and over and over…mirrors staring back at me, muscles unhappy with me, and my heart feeling the mundane-ness of a habit of ballet class that was not optional. Give me a performance week, and my heart would light up!
So often I knew I just needed to mix something up a bit! I needed either a change in perspective or a change in my routine just to keep ballet class fresh…to keep it fresh because I knew how important it was. Ballet class was vital. It was the very foundation that my performing depended on. It was my home base for my dancing. Sometimes I mixed it up by wearing my hair different (somehow it gave me extra pep in my step…or extra fun in my run as my boys like to say when I am hurrying them off to school to beat the tardy bell.) Sometimes I changed up my dance attire…if I had been wearing pink tights, I would switch to black, if I was wearing a skirt I would switch it up to shorts. Although changing up my wardrobe helped a little, the most beneficial help was to change my perspective.
Sometimes I just needed a pep talk with my own heart…
Sarah, ballet class is making you stronger.
Sarah, ballet class prevents injury by warming you up.
Sarah, ballet class can still be fun!
Sarah, look what you get to do!
I bring this up today because I notice that in our spiritual walk with Jesus, sometimes the same thing can happen in our “quiet times.” Before I had my three boys, my “quiet time” where I studied Scripture and prayed and journaled to the Lord was easier because time was my own. Now that I am a mom sometimes quiet time looks like reading the Word during Blues Clues (super cute cartoon involving a super cute blue puppy named Blue) and sometimes it looks like praying between apple juice and chocolate milk refills…or during them! Sometimes in my quiet times with the Lord, I try REALLY hard to stick to a reading plan so that I can really get through the whole Bible in a certain amount of time. But often, my heart longs to go off the program. My heart longs to feel close to God…my heart longs to hear His whispers…so I’ve learned to listen to that little heart-nudge and lean into grace to go off the program.
Just how in ballet class, I often needed to mix things up a bit as well as change my perspective, in our time with the Lord, often we need to mix things up a bit and change our perspective to keep it fresh. And oh Daughter, He wants that time with Him to be fresh and new every day. He loves to refill you. He loves to show you new things. He loves to surprise you. He loves to speak to you. He loves to woo you. But sometimes we have to notice when that time has grown mundane, dry…when it’s become a program… and let Him swoop in with grace and get us off the program and closer to His heart.
How is your time with the Lord going? I want to encourage you today to mix it up a bit if it feels dry. LET HIM LEAD….EVEN YOUR QUIET TIME. He might lay a certain verse on your heart or a certain devotional to read…He does that! He loves to gently nudge your heart into deeper waters of His grace. He may nudge you to just be still and listen or He may nudge you to pray. He is not putting an “X” by your name if you don’t stick to the reading plan or you don’t read for a certain number of minutes. He is not tracking when and how long you are spending time with Him. No, He just wants you to come to Him and He just wants to be involved in your whole day. So don’t be afraid to go off the program and exchange the program for the Spirit’s leading.
And today, let your perspective rest on this…that time…that your heart drawing close to His heart time…that filling up with Living Water…it’s our foundation, our home base for living as secure, loved, confident, joyful, peace-filled women of Grace. So when we wonder what good it’s doing, just like I often wondered what good ballet class was doing, may we remember that it’s where the good stuff is…it’s where all the good stuff flows from! Jesus didn’t stop at salvation…that would have been enough. He went much further. He made it possible to live in step with Him every day. He made a relationship with Him possible. It’s the best kind of news next to our salvation.
Lastly, LISTEN to His holy nudges. When you feel that ache, that void, that empty feeling that you don’t know what to do with…grab your Bible, grab a pen, grab a journal, find a porch (be still my porch-sitting heart) and just meet Him there…
He will do the rest. I promise.
Daughter, be encouraged to go off the program today in order to find a fresh perspective in your quiet time with the Lord.
I am thinking of you.
“Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” Galatians 5:25
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