Waiting is prayer

My head says
Do, do, do
The fast eat the slow
You have to make it happen
Getting a job depends solely on you

My soul says
Wait, listen, watch, rest
Your strength comes from settling down in complete dependence on me [God] (Is. 30.16)

Waiting is not passive, it's not in-activity, although my body may be still.
Waiting is prayer, trusting, faith
while I "wait on the Lord"
He is working on my behalf

"God's not finished. He's waiting around to be gracious to you. He's gathering strength to show mercy to you. God takes the time to do everything right -- EVERYTHING.
THose who wait around for him are the lucky ones." (Is.30.18)

I believe - help my unbelief.

I am a little child!

Chesterton's passage about "Do it again" along with Herschel's quote "to be spiritual is to be constantly amazed," has deeply touched me. It has been a grace from God as different influences (Robert Coles, Sandy Eisenburg Sasso, Cathy Stonehouse, Richard Louv, etc.)have all shaped both my personal spirituality and my understanding of kids spiritual development.

The other day while in the woods, it hit me. I am like a little child.
I am thrilled to see yet another cardinal or woodpecker at my bird feeder.
I love to see "my" hawk fly through the backyard, two, three or four times a day.
I get excited when I hear the owl hooting in the morning, or
see the morning sun break over the horizon in the southern winter sky.

I am filled with awe and wonder at what God is doing.

What fills you with awe and wonder?
Are you too burdened with the "to do, perform, accomplish" list to even notice God?
Spend some time with a child, play and listen to them. They will teach you.

"Do it Again"

“A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, ‘Do it again’; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, ‘Do it again’ to the sun; and every evening, ‘Do it again’ to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.”GK Chesterton, Orthodoxy, chapter 4

Rabbi Martin Levin offered a wonderfully simple description of spirituality: to be spiritual is to be constantly amazed.

Perhaps that is why Jesus tells us adults that we need to become child-like in our faith.
I wonder why kids lose their ability to be amazed?
I wonder what I may have done as both a parent and educator to contribute to this lost ability?
What amazes you?

GK Chesterton Reading

Perhaps God exhalts in monotony
perhaps God is "stuck" in internal infancy
a place of awe and wonder
a place of play and discovery
a place of joy and trust
Every day He says to his creation "do it again"