{thankful vol. 20} morning quiet time

This morning I am thankful for a couple of things:

1) I am on vacation for the week!

2) This allows me to enjoy morning quiet times with God

3) God is always teaching me something new and challenging me

4) Oh, my new coffee mug always makes my mornings brighter :-)

I am a planner.  I know that I have said this so many times before, but this "planning" way of living has thus caused anxiety.  Lately I have found myself anxious about life.  It feels like we are in a holding pattern, waiting for my grad school to finish, and waiting for life to take us through to our next season.

I have done some amazing studies with even more amazing and beautiful women about the seasons of our lives, and although this has prepared me for what each season will bring it has also made me complacent.  This is because I feel like I have been in the same season for the past year.  It feels as though nothing has changed.  

However, the changes that I feel as though should be happening to us our outward symbols of achievement.  I read this quote by my favorite women's author, Lysa Terkeurst, "External achievement never equals internal acceptance".  Right now I find myself struggling to accept this season that God has put me in, to just live life right now as it is, and live it fully to His calling.  

Right now I feel like I'm waiting.  Waiting for grad school to be over.  Waiting for the right time to have a baby.  Waiting for a new season in our lives.  Waiting....  When I wait I deal with questions, wants, and worries.  

Yesterday morning I was reading Psalm 23 about David.  David had just been anointed King but then he was sent back to his fields to wait, and the place he had come from was the most unlikely of them all.  He was a shepard.  The following scriptures were from David's experience yet they touch me deeply:

"The Lord is my shepard; I shall not want.  He makes me lie down in green pastures.  He leads me beside still waters.  He restores my soul.  He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.  Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me."  

Psalm 23:1-4 

Verse 4 was David approaching his fight against Goliath.  Can you imagine?  Coming up against Goliath, everyone believe that there is not way you can take him down, yet having faith instead of fear?    David chose to resist the temptation of discontentment by looking at the greater good of his waiting period.  He rested, reflected, and became restored so that when it was his time to become King he would be able to do what God had planned for him to do.

That is like me today.  I need to read more of God's word so that I am encouraged in this waiting time, reflect on what God is teaching me, be restored so that I can live each day to His purpose-not my own, and truly put my anxiety and worries into his hands.  

I hope this encourages you in some way today lovelies!