Time to Rest

As I came back up the driveway following my morning walk, I was greeted on the front porch by the mama cat I call "Pretty Kitty." She has five kittens living under the ramp that goes to Mom's entrance.

We had a morning rain shower just at sunrise, and so it was very humid as I walked along. The temperature had reached nearly 80 degrees by 8:00 a.m. When I got to the steep incline of the driveway that leads to the rock quarry south of our house, I was entranced by the sight of dozens of dragonflies swooping and diving just above the grass, disturbed by my footsteps. At dusk they will fly twenty to thirty feet in the air over our heads as Mom and I take our evening walk around the driveway. They are carnivorous hunters of smaller insects, and I always feel they are protecting us from Kansas mosquitoes, which have been known to carry off new calves and small children. Well, perhaps that is a slight exaggeration, but we do grow 'em big around these parts!

The milkweed is beginning to bloom. It fills the air with a sweet, heavy fragrance that is at its best just following a rain like the one we had this morning.

I feel the Lord has directed me to rest during June.  I feel disoriented, anxious, and guilty.  Yes, guilty.  I feel I should be doing great things for the Kingdom, and instead I'm taking walks and literally stopping to smell the flowers!  But the Lord's direction to me to rest has an edge of warning that I know I'd best not ignore.  I have learned that if I don't rest when He says to rest that He is able to arrange time off for me.  I remember the summer I spent with my foot in a cast.  Voluntary rest is to be preferred over enforced rest!  Father help me to honor You in this time of rest.  Help me to be disciplined in my rest.  This is not a time to pursue whatever activities I want, it is a time to move deeper into my relationship with the Lord.  

Scripture: Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28).