Marsha's Musings: Still Waters & Green Pastures

Psalm 23:1 ¶ The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. 3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. 4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. 5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.(KJV)

Just a month or so ago my family doctor told me he was worried about me because I have too much on my plate. But how was I going to take any time off? I homeschool 11 months out of the year, am responsible for the homeschool yearbook publication, planning a speech class for the highschoolers this fall, am involved with my church, and am a taxi mom to one teen and one pre-teen, deal with chronic pain issues, must reaarrange my schedule to travel whenever my husband's boss decides to call a meeting, which is about once a month because he can't drive long distances alone. This doesn't cover all the hats that I wear.

How was I going to get anytime off to rest? The Lord had that all figured out. Last week was family vacation week. Normally, family vacation week is stressful for me because I have to plan all the food and pack it (food allergies/Celiac Disease prevents eating out much), figure out how it's all going to fit in the car and then while traveling, I still have to fix all the meals, only without a kitchen to do it in. It's not a vacation, just a change in routine.

Providentially, the Lord made it necessary for me to have a minor surgery during vacation week that required sedation. Because I am sensitive to anesthetics with epinephrine and it wasn't an option this time, I was given twice as much sedation as most people for this procedure. As it turned out, I slept the better part of a day and a half. I was waited on hand and foot for those two days by my family. After I recovered from the sedation, I took over the cooking responsibilities again, but it was much more relaxed...I didn't have a time committment to keep since my husband had the week off and wasn't on a schedule. The rest of the vacation week my husband took the kids to several movies and shopping and one afternoon we spent the afternoon lazing around at the water park. I spent a lot of time alone at home just resting and relaxing.

This was the green pastures and still waters that I needed. A needed a break in my busyness. The Lord had it all planned and yet before hand, I was stressed about the surgery and what the week would be like. I didn't need to stress. God knew what He was doing. He was giving me a much needed break. It was a great time for me to pray, read uplifting material and listen to audio books on my MP-3 player .

As an added blessing, I discovered classic Christian audiobooks at Sermonaudio.com that I can download for free into my MP-3 player. Now I am able to get tons more housework and chores done as I listen to spiritually uplifting and challenging books by authors such as J. C. Ryle, and Andrew Murray and Pilgrims Progress and many others. What a deal! I love to read but rarely find time for it, but now I can listen to books while I work. I might have not discovered this had it not been for me looking for things I could listen too while I was recovering.

God truly is good.....even when I wonder what He is trying to accomplish at times....if I just trust Him, I find He knows what is best.