April showers bring?
A pause to reflect in the springtime newness.
| Pause |
This month of April for me has been a swirl of many logistics, travels, outdoor planting, and so much more. Amidst the ins and outs of life, it’s been such a beautiful season to spend outside as a family. This is the first spring we’ve spent on our farm here in north Georgia and it’s been such a fun adventure waking up each day seeing what new buds have started to form and bloom, or what is not blooming and needs to be pulled out. This waiting, noticing, uprooting, and planting has become a beautiful, holy space.
Sometimes it takes careful pausing and looking to see if something is truly dead and needs to be uprooted. Sometimes it takes a long time to uproot what has been dead for a while.
What has April brought for you?
Where have you felt rushed?
What areas do you feel like you need to pause and slow down in?
What is God feeling over the areas of your life that seem dead?
| Listen |
The one thing I asked my husband for as I celebrated another birthday recently was for our front porch to be cleaned off, some dead bushes to be replaced with fresh seeds, and a new rocking chair. As I rock on the porch and watch the sun rise, I’m met by the enveloping song of our springtime birds. My husband’s family used to call this farm “bird hill” and rightfully so. I’ve never been a bird watcher, but as I’m often surrounded by them these days, I can’t help but wondering what new songs they’re singing? What are they saying to each other? What are they hopeful for this year?
Their songs echo the newness that is blooming around—hope, expectancy, and regrowth.
What is something new that was discovered this past month?
What is blooming that you may have thought was long dead?
What song might Jesus be singing over you in this season?
| Notice |
It was an early morning prayer time that spoke to me so deeply. In this past month, my eyes have been down a lot—looking at logistics, planning steps, caring for little ones. My preferred posture of noticing has been replaced with distraction, tiredness, and business. As I sat down in prayer one morning, I kept asking the Lord what I needed to hear. He lead me to Psalm 121. This Psalm has been intertwined into so many parts of my story as a mother. But this morning in particular, I needed to hear verses 1-2, “I lift my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth.”
I lift my eyes.
That’s what I was being invited to do—to lift my eyes to Him.
To see that He was writing a grander story, even if it wasn’t exactly what I wanted and in the timeframe I expected it.
To see His eyes locked on mine—tender, kind, and patient.
To see His provisions all around me, even if it held pieces that were painful and hard.
To see Him—and to let that be enough.
What is God inviting you to lift your eyes from?
What is He inviting you to see?
What is He inviting you to notice about yourself as you notice Him?
May you feel and know the presence of Love surrounding you today.