Be Still "Be still, and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10 (NKJV) When I was a school teacher, we had a book called "Octomom". Octomom had eight arms; she was an octopus mom! In the story, she was using two hands to change the baby when her little boy came in asking for juice. No problem. Octomom used a third arm to pour the juice while she took care of baby. Another child came in needing help zipping her jacket. No problem, she used her fourth arm. The phone rang and Octomom answered it with her fifth arm. She stirred the pot on the stove with her sixth arm and prepared a snack with her seventh, when one of the children came in crying with a scraped knee. She fixed that with her eighth arm! With all that going on, her daughter asked her to open the peanut butter jar and finally Octomom said, "I only have eight hands!"
It's a funny story but a mother's life is busy and eight hands weren't even enough. You've probably heard your mother say, "I only have two hands." Moms can't do everything at once and children have to learn how to do some things for themselves sometimes.
When people try to do several things at once, we call that "multi-tasking." Our world has gotten so busy that everyone seems to be multi-tasking most of the time. People can now drive and talk on the phone, and eat dinner all at the same time! Many people have such long lists of things to do each day that their life is always rushed and there's rarely time to relax and be still. They try to fit more and more into each 24 hours and they don't get enough sleep or rest.
God did not make us like Octomom. Sometimes all of us have to do several things at once. But God did not create us to live in a rush, multi-tasking all the time. He wants us to take good care of our bodies and be sure we take time to rest and be still. Not only is that important for the health of our body, it's also essential for our spiritual life.
God wants us to spend time with Him. Psalm 46 tells us "Be still, and know that I am God." God doesn't really want to be scheduled into our busy day-timer. He wants us to be still and really get to know Him. He wants our complete attention.
That doesn't mean we can't talk to God in the midst of a busy day. We do that and we turn our heart and mind toward him even in the midst of our many activities. But we also must have quiet time where we slow down and focus on Him. We have to slow down and be still. That is hard in today's world. It means we cannot do everything we want to do. There are so many opportunities clamoring for our time and attention. But we must use wisdom and make wise choices that say "no" to some good activities because it will make us too busy to be still and know God.
Plan for quiet time each day where you will really get to know God. Meditate on His word, and pray. If you don't have time to relax and be still each day, then you are too busy. Ask the Lord to help you make wise choices about which activities you will do and which ones you will set aside. Don't live your life like Octomom! Learn to be still and really know God.
Copyright, 2007, Laurie Latour.
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