SLOW DOWN

Pencils, backpacks, lunch supplies, schedules, rulers, new outfits for the kids, haircuts, meet and greet the teachers, sign-ups for PTA, fall sports AND remember to breathe! Ah, the hurried back-to-school season is underway.  Is it just me, or does this season of preparing resemble the Christmas season?  Just as every fall comes around, my mind starts to whirl with questions: How am I going to organize my life this school year?  How am I going to balance being a wife, mother, friend and school volunteer? And the most important question my husband always wants to know is what am I cooking for dinner every night? (Now imagine me doing that hands to the face scream like the kid in the movie Home Alone) –That’s pretty much how I feel when I think about the back-to-school season. 

  But then God reminded me to slow down.  It was a sign.  I mean a literal sign, by the road that I pass by whenever I am entering into the area that my daughter’s middle school is in.  The sign has the speed limit posted and when you drive pass the sign over the speed limit, it lights up with the words all capitals in red SLOW DOWN.  When I first saw those words it spoke right to the heart of my situation.  Yes, I needed to slow down, but how? 

  Sometimes slowing down means to wait on the Lord to do something new in your life.  Other times slowing down means to remove the distractions in your life that take your focus away from what you should be focusing on.

Here’s what David wrote when he was seeking out God’s plan for his life:

In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly. Psalm 5:3 (NIV)

Then David’s son, Solomon wrote these words of wisdom concerning God’s plan for all of our lives:

Keep your eyes straight ahead;
   ignore all sideshow distractions.
Watch your step,
   and the road will stretch out smooth before you.
Look neither right nor left;
   leave evil in the dust. Proverbs 4:25,26 (Message)

Waiting, ignoring distractions; purposefully slowing your life down to gain focus on what’s really important, that’s how I want to live.  So this season I’m choosing to listen to God’s direction and I’m choosing to SLOW DOWN. 

How about you?  What are you doing to slow your life down?  Are you choosing to wait expectantly like David? Or are you choosing to ignore all distractions like Solomon?  Take a moment and ask God what you should be focusing on this season and then write it down.  Put that paper in a visible place to remind you that anything that takes away your focus from what you’ve written down is a distraction.  If you apply God’s word to your life, peace will prevail.