The rain has fallen softly throughout the day.   I love it when God forces me inside, trying to keep warm on a wet, chilly day.  He knows me so well. He knows how my mind and body push themselves until I can’t go any further.  Unfortunately, my body is weak.  It does not handle lots of activity, stress, or a demanding schedule as well as other people’s bodies handle things.  Since I was young, I could only push myself so far before physical discomfort kicked in to force a time of rest.  The same story has been repeating itself for the past fifty years, yet I never seem to learn to slow down without God’s reminder.

For me, the demanding part of being a teacher, mother, and wife is the fact that there is no end to my job.  This has become crystal clear to me over the past year as we have resided on Green Acres.  My husband, who is so skilled at building and creating beauty on our land, can sit back and admire his work from afar just as I am admiring the seating area he made across the pond right this minute.  He can look at it and say “I built that.  I designed that and built it with my own two hands.”  Not so much with my daily chores.  The dishes never stop coming.  The laundry is never truly done.  The cleaning is never permanent.  It has just recently occurred to me that this may, in fact, be the reason why women may feel more stressed out than men.  Our work is never done.  We are constantly molding our children and families into the creations God designed for them.  We are constantly planning new and better things for our families.  We are working at our jobs, but our hearts are at our homes trying to “finish” our never-ending tasks.

This season of my life has been spent trying to de-clutter my brain and find truth through the study of God’s word.  His word is as sharp as a double-edged sword and He wants to reveal truth to us.  He wants us to be at a place of total peace and rest, but we must look to Him and help fight off the attacks of the world that frequently vie for our time and attention.  As I have said before, the devil knows that if he keeps me busy and tired, he has already partially won the battle for my heart.  If I am worn down, I don’t have the energy to remind myself how valuable I am to God and His kingdom.  I won’t have the energy to fight off unhealthy thoughts of frustration when I feel as if I never get ahead in the area of cleaning the house and caring for my family.  My mind will tell me that I am not doing a good job when, in fact, my entire family is healthy and happy and doing extremely well.

Green Acres has helped me to embrace truth and notice deception.  When I come home from school exhausted at the end of each day, I merely walk around Green Acres with my camera in hand in order to unwind.  It is amazing the detail and perspective you see when you are free to look with an uncluttered mind.  There have been many times I have decided not to take my camera on my walk because I have thousands of pictures of our land, but God always provides a different perspective or backdrop for a photo opportunity.

I believe that our minds and hearts can do the same. When we view the world from God’s perspective, He will always show us a different backdrop and angle to our thinking.  A paradigm shift.  A change in attitude about a situation.  A new outlook.  Just as the rains are falling softly over Green Acres right now, allow God’s perspective and outlook to rain down on your mind and give you a renewed spirit.