My little boy Isaac is 3 and a half now. He has a fairly sunny disposition and I enjoy his personality very much. Most of the time he is very spunky and has a great sense of humor. That is until around 2 in the afternoon.
Some days we can make it past 2 and survive the rest of the day without a quiet time- but most days we can’t. And so, I enforce the quiet time rule for his own good. To be honest, its also for the sake of my own sanity, but I have other reasons too.
You see Isaac and I share something around 2 pm each day. Its almost so special, I don’t want to share it – but I will. When Isaac has grabbed up his blanket and favorite toy of the day to take to his nap, I snuggle him in his covers and I tell him an Isaac story. It begins with “Once there was a little boy named Isaac…” and typically it tells the tale of our exciting day so far. But it always ends with, “Isaac’s mommy and daddy love him very much.” and a hug and a kiss and an “I wuv you mommy! see you in the morning!”
And so I am happy to enforce quiet time.
Right now, if I look out my window there is about six inches of snow on the ground. Here, in Chattanooga, six inches. Its a winter wonderland and its beautiful. But its also debilitating. I don’t think there are more than 5 people in our city who own shovels – and the city owns even fewer plows. When snow falls in our southern part of the country, no one goes anywhere.
What does that mean for our family? Our weekend plans have been nixed. Not only did we have the regular weekend plans such as grocery shopping, laundry and church services on Sunday. There were also big ticket items on our agenda like a wedding, installing a new garage door opener and putting away the last of our Christmas decorations. Yes, we had a very busy weekend planned and now we don’t.
Instead, we will be home, together with a new and improved low-key agenda. A little hot cocoa, some monopoly, a good story book or two, possibly a movie, naps; there’s nowhere to be and nothing else to do. It makes me wonder. Is this God’s way of enforcing a quiet time with me? Is he hoping I’ll crawl up in his lap and rest so he can whisper to me a “Melody story”?
I know there have to be times when I reach the proverbial two o’clock mark in my life and He has to be hoping I’ll stop and be still with Him for a while. So often I don’t. I keep going. I keep running in over drive – and don’t make time for Him to bring peace to my heart and mind.
Psalm 23 is a reminder of His desire for my rest:
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
He restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.
He longs to find a way to give me rest and to have a quiet moment alone together – to tell me the story of how much He loves me. And so, I believe the snow is here this weekend as a reminder for me to rest, to be still, to enjoy time with Him. Its a gentle reminder from the original quiet time enforcer.
(originally written January 30, 2010)
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