Time out

When my girls were small, I would make them sit on the couch sometimes to discipline them. "Sit there until I say you can get up," I'd tell them. Then, when I felt it had been long enough, they'd usually get a lecture about what they had done that landed them there before their release. These days, this discipine is known as "time out." I've picked up the phrase from my daughter when she and her three kids are visiting. "Do you want to sit in the time out chair?" Of course the obvious answer is "no ma'am." As a general rule, children don't want to sit still, much less in seclusion (i.e., where they can't see the tv). But what about adults? You might think that most adults (especially busy Moms) would LOVE to take a time out. But what if it included the "sit there and think about what you did" clause? Or worse sometimes, what you didn't do?

To look at this from a different angle, have you ever been just piddling (tinkering, etc.--doing stuff with no particular thought to it) around the house and before you know it an hour or more has passed and you didn't even realize it. For instance, I load the dishwasher to get the dishes out of the way. Then I rinse out the sink. I notice the ring of grime around the edge, so I scrub that off, then I move to the counter top. I clean around the surface and I notice how dirty the stovetop is. So I clean around the stove top. The thought crosses my mind that I really have things I need to do, but I continue anyway. Before I know it an hour has passed and I haven't gotten to anything on my to-do list. But I'm not disappointed because I have a nice clean stovetop, counter and sink. I imagine we've all done the same sort of thing.

If you're a gardener maybe you walked out to the mailbox intending to go right inside and do some task or other. But then you spied some weeds in the flower bed. You set the mail down and pull those pesky weeds. Before you know it, two hours have passed, your back is stiff and your intended task is still undone. But your flowerbed is gloriously free of weeds! Or maybe you went to the garage to put the trash out and you saw a tool somebody forgot to put up. Two hours later the bag of garbage is still by the door, but your tool bench is neatly organized and everything put away. I could go on and on, but you get my drift. We all "waste" time like this occasionally, but it's not really wasted, it's more like unplanned productivity.

One of the things I'm trying to do during Lent is to spend more time in God's presence. But I need to work on not doing all the talking. I have been thinking of it as sort of a time out. Making time to sit quietly and be totally focused on the Holy Spirit's voice around me and inside me. To let that voice guide my thoughts to all the things I have done or the things I have not done. It has to be intentional, but I also thought it had to be planned. Yesterday I got up at the usual time of 4:30am even though we had stayed up an hour later the night before. When Jerry got up and we were both very tired, we decided not to go to the gym. We did some of our FP4H Bible Study and then he went back to bed. I was planning to follow him, but I realized I had been asking God to help me make time for prayer and quiet time with him, and here I was. It was 5 am, very quiet, and I was alone. It was perfect. Before I knew it an hour had passed. I didn't go back to bed to get that needed physical and mental rest, but God had refreshed my spirit through his presence. So this "time out" with God turned out to be "unplanned productivity."

Thank you Holy Spirit for the "time out" to contemplate my relationship with you and to examine my conscience. I know I need to set time aside for this as a discipline, but I am so grateful that you meet me halfway. You speak to me and bring me to a stop when I am focused on my physical or worldly tasks. What a fellowship, what a joy divine, Leaning on the everlasting arms! Amen.

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/l/o/lotearms.htm