Wash away gray,
Floating overalls and more ©

God has blessed me this morning with a beautiful quiet spot to meditate, focus, write and begin a desperately needed catching up. It has been kind of a rare thing for me just to have a few hours in a row of alone time. Schedules, mine, and I am sure yours too, have a way of filling up and speeding by. Sometimes they even scream at you. My schedule lately has been kind of like my cell phone. My phone has an escalating ring. If I don't hear it at first, the ring will keep increasing in volume until I must throw it in the river, or pay attention to it. It seems that my to-do list is battling with me in that same way. If I don't stop and pay attention to what is on the list, the list just gets bigger and louder and more aggravating until I finally take the time to stop and accomplish something that I can cross off. There are days when I would like to throw my cell phone (maybe my schedule too) in the river. Out of sight out of mind! Right? Kind of like that “going to wash that gray right out of my hair” thing. If I don't see it or hear it, I won't have to deal with it. And if I get good at not dealing with it, I will believe, and maybe even my friends will believe, that it doesn't exist.

Now I really do know that throwing my cell phone in the river is not an option, because I don't live close to a river. And those who need to call me can be glad about that, because I really could be the type of woman that would throw those tangible things that annoy her into the river. My mom and my aunt have told me that one wash day when I was playing under the clothesline on the riverbank, they looked up and found me running under the sheets in my diaper. I had taken off my red overalls and there they were floating down the river. They said that they took a wooden clothes line prop and fished them out. They said that I hated those red overalls. I am sure I did and still would. What a thing to put on a future woman of worth!! Anyway...

O.K. I digress! But I am enjoying a morning where I have thrown my schedule into the river: The river of God ! I have been totally relaxed now for over three hours. Reading , praying, and meditating on the notes I have made in the last month. Every woman ( ok, or man) deserves at least one such morning a month.

I just found a note that I had jotted down while listening to a message. The speaker had shared that Michelangelo had once said that when carving, he simply removed what did not look like a man.

Selah! Think about it for a minute. When I am carving...right...like I ever carve! Well, when I am trying to make something, my concentration is usually upon what I am trying to make. But it seems that he was not concentrating on carving a man, but rather on removing what did not look like a man. He was not striving to produce, but striving to remove what was not productive!

What a life lesson! If we would just start carving away, removing and throwing out that which is not productive for us. (I'm talking more serious than red overalls. here.) We need to have an idea, the vision, or the plan for our lives, and then focus on removing what does not look like it. If we get distracted, we look back to the plan and then again begin taking away what does not resemble the goal we are planning on achieving.

Oh, come on, I know it is not new, but come to think about it, I bet we all have some carving away to do. I challenge you to try this today in just one area: We know that as Christians, we are to be more Christ-like. O.K... so what about you isn't Christ-like? Don't look for only the big chunks. You'll probably find some little chips of impatience, unkindness, or jealousy first. I, for one, am taking up carving.

And BTW...if you are trying to make more time, don't look for longer days or more minutes to put in an hour. Just look for what you can cut out.  

Lord, help me to learn how to cut out, remove, or
throw into the river those things that are not
productive. Help me to learn how to invest in your
kingdom. I want to rightly discern what is your plan
for me. And Lord, help me to see what should not be
there. Help me to be sensitive to spot and remove
those distractions, those things that don't look like the
woman of God you have called me to be.  

Yes, we are all artists! We simply must begin carvings !©

“I will guard my ways…Lord, make me to know my end, and what is the extent of my days , let me know how transient I am.” Ps. 39 1and 4 and 5