Taking Time To Slow Down

I decided to piggy-back off of my last post about living in an “instant” world.

Personal confession time: I rush through life – it takes a conscious effort for me to slow down and just relax. Ask my husband. I am a do-er. I am a task-oriented person. The more things on my to-do list, the more accomplished I feel. If there is nothing on the to-do list, I feel my worth declining. In order to feel “worth” I need to DO something.

Oh boy. I know, I have issues :). Where to start?

On Saturday, over my cup of coffee with my friends, I told them this is NOT me. Well first of all, I used to hate coffee – then I moved to Minnesota. I do add more creamer than coffee, but I have to say I enjoy it! Anyways, I told them that for me, sitting down on a Saturday morning goes against every grain in my body. I had a few things what I deemed as “needing to be done” and I left them undone. I told them they were good for me. I left a little early, in hopes of getting those “need to be done” things, done. Instead, I went for a run. I know, now I’m really going crazy! Dan probably wondered what was wrong with me!

Time flies. I often think “where has time gone”? I think back to certain events in life and they seem like they were an eternity ago. At the same time, I live with excitement for the future – for what God has in store.

But, God doesn’t want me to live for tomorrow – He wants me to live for today. The here and now. That is where my problem lies. I live too much, thinking AHEAD.

I know, for some, you may be thinking “I need to think ahead MORE…” but for me, I need to take time and SLOW DOWN. Slow down enough to take time for coffee. Slow down enough to go for a walk, without feeling guilty. Slow down enough to do nothing.

Dan and I often talk about two times in our life with such fond memories.

Our honeymoon and our getaway last October.

Those two trips have been the most restful times in our life. We were looking so forward to our honeymoon before we got married – we were busy finishing up school, graduating, Dan just started a new full-time job, we were still finishing remodeling our house, oh, and we were getting married. We looked so forward to the day when we didn’t have deadlines or a schedule for that matter. I remember sitting on the beach for a week, soaking in the rays, and just doing NOTHING. The activities people at our resort in Mexico called us lazy because we didn’t want to play volleyball. Call it what it is – we were lazy and we were SO OKAY with that! A few years later, we took them up on that offer, but at that time, we needed to just SLOW DOWN.

Our getaway in October of last year. It was a whirlwind leading up to it. In fact, we did not know what hit us. Dan lost his job, we lost our two hooties, packed up our belongings and moved out of our house. We honestly couldn’t even think. We were so overwhelmed and we were encouraged to just leave – to getaway. By God’s grace and the love of others, we were able to. We sat and just talked. We sat in silence. We sat and did nothing. We walked around God’s creation. We just slowed down. Slowed down to try and hear God’s voice. Slowed down enough to hear our own thoughts.

Of course there are MANY other times in our life where we felt the need to slow down and acted upon it. Yet it was those two times, that we remember the most. It is when we see our life whizzing by us, that we remember those two moments and the utter need to SLOW DOWN.

I think about Christ and how He sought His Father. He took time away. He took time to just be. He took time to talk to His Father. I do devotions. I think about God. I talk about God. But those are just the motions – do I take time to just let it SINK IN? Do I reflect? Do I take time to just BE with God?

Sitting for me is not cool. I don’t “sit” well. When we travel home to Michigan, I always take something to do – I need to be doing something. Granted it helps the time past, but I feel I am “wasting” time. Yes, I know, this is unhealthy! What about spending time watching God’s creation go by me as we drive? What about taking time to think? Isn’t that doing something?

I need to work on slowing down. I have to say I used to be MUCH worse. I overcommitted. I was involved in WAY too much. Since moving out to Minnesota, Dan and I have been extremely on guard against that. In fact, he is my accountability partner. I have had to say no to a few things and as HARD as that is for me, I know it is the right thing to do. Dan is such a great support to me in that. We want to be able to take time to slow down. To “stop” the busyness and just BE.

What about your life? Are you letting life whiz by you? Are you wondering where the time has gone? What do you need to do to enjoy every moment? To live in the present?

What do you do to slow down? If you have any great ideas, please comment! I know there are others too, who struggle! Let’s all take time to slow down and just “be.”