It’s been a hot summer on the coast this year, maybe every year, but this one has been peppered with less hilltop experiences and more valleys and valleys hold the heat more so. So it has been in this post-ish season of pandemics and upheavals both in our personal and cultural life. Just hot, draining and exhausting.
The battle to keep my front porch plants alive has been fierce. I stood at the spigot and watched the water pour into the watering can. It felt like it took forever but I knew if I didn’t fill it up, it wouldn’t hold enough to refresh all the plants and I would be back here again in 30 seconds.
Isn’t that how it is for us?
We run ourselves dry at times. Seasons of pouring out or seasons of trial upon trial and we neglect to pause long enough to refill and refresh. I often try to get by on only my morning time with the Lord when what my soul is screaming for is a weekend of silence and solitude to allow Him to mend the torn places and refill the cracks.
How can we expect to keep pouring out for our family, our friends, our ministry, from an empty watering can?
A couple years ago, I was intentional to claim the month of June as my refreshment month. I knew my husband and I were getting away for our anniversary for a week that month and I knew I had larger responsibilities to come when July began. I also knew my heart was freshly broken from the loss of my Dad and some major life transitions for our family.
I claimed the month as sacred and held tight to that all month.
Somehow the naming of it helped me to grace myself more and to give myself permission to just be present in each moment; to cry, laugh, breathe, and pause as needed.
Looking at the months ahead, I now see the squares beginning to crowd with new responsibilities and a fresh season blowing in. Being intentional to claim the weeks ahead as a time to pause and let God refill me where needed is not a luxury but a necessity.
We will never pour out of an empty container. But God supplies all that we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him (2 Peter 1:3). So why not pull our watering can up to the Supplier and just be still and know Him so He might begin to fill those empty spaces?
Tending Tip: Even if you aren’t in a season of life that allows for extended time with Him, consider reading Psalm 1 while sitting outside and take a moment to ask Him to make you like the tree planted by the stream of His water. Then keep returning your mind to that image today as you pour out His grace on others.
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I remembering digging and carving out flowerbeds, shrub beds, tree spots in my back yard when it had nothing. It was hard work in the red Tennessee clay – but it was worth it for what eventually grows there. Carving out time alone with God sometimes feels like that – but doing it makes the good things grow. Yes! That time is so important! Thank you for the reminder!
Grateful the post encouraged you❤