Loneliness Trap: Clutter - Day 92

Loneliness Trap: Clutter
Day 92

To have a new hobby or to embark on a new endeavor to serve others is good, but overcrowding your life with activities can distract you from the process of grieving. You need time to be quiet, to relax, to meditate, and to pray.

Dr. Jim Conway says, "I remember a woman coming to one of the groups who said, 'My husband has been gone for about a year, and I'm just not getting any better.' She listed off half a dozen activities that she'd started since her husband died, as if being more active would help her through the process.

"I said to her, 'You know, you've been running from grief, but you have not yet started to grieve.'"

Use wisdom in the choices you make during grief, choices about your time, commitments, activities, and behaviors. Grief must be faced and then journeyed through, and the wisdom and strength to persevere is found in the Lord.

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him" (James 1:2-5).

Father, please give me the wisdom to know when to be active and when to slow down, when to work and when to relax. Amen.

~ I think I fell into this pattern of trying to stay busy. It isn't hard to do since I have a 4 year old for sure. I just have to allow myself that 1 day to sit down and just be still. I have guilt of what I could be doing or should be doing, but at the end of the day, each of my days is so packed with things to do whether it is feeding my soul or working on my body that I just don't have time to sit down and be still.  I've gotten in such a routine that I tend to stay so busy that the only quiet time I get is when I get in the bed and that is the time that I need to be trying to rest from the day's busy activities. I am still learning, but I found that last Sunday, while I was cleaning and what not, I listened to Gospel music and it was then that my heart was filled with joy and that the music touched me and I shed some tears. I didn't know where they came from either. I was all "woah" but I didn't fight it because I figured it was what I needed right in that moment. When I was done crying, I was good.