Success used to look like getting as many items checked off my to-do list as possible in a day. The more I accomplished, the more successful I was, right? And maybe even the more worthy I was, or so I thought.
Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash
But what if …
What if your markers of success were how well you slept at night? how many books you read? how easily you laughed? how much time you spent storytelling, feeling warm in the arms and homes of people you adore?
– Emmie Rae
Well, since we’re looking at it that way … I sleep well every night, I read a book or two a week, and the man I’m married to keeps me in chuckles.
As for feeling warm in the arms and homes of people I adore, that happens all the time—here at home and when we visit kids and grands and friends.
Now if I can just learn to manage that darn to-do list.
This thought from Greg McKeown:
What if we stopped celebrating being busy as a measurement of importance? What if instead we celebrated how much time we had spent listening, pondering, meditating, and enjoying time with the most important people in our lives?
Which reminds me of this verse in the psalms:
Be still and know that I am God.
– Psalm 46:10
God calls us to be still before him. He calls us to understand what he’s called us to do … and what he hasn’t called us to do, and to not measure our worth by how much we accomplish in a day.
I’m learning to be still.
Joe albert
Amen! Love it.
Marlys Lawry
Thank you, Joe!
Stephanie
So true!
Marlys Lawry
Yes, Stephanie … and even though it’s true, I’m continually learning to be still.
Peter Howe B.E.M.
Thank you for leading us from the bustle of how life can be to… ‘Be still’. The tranquility of still waters, just being in such quiet moments ‘being still’. You led ME to perhaps my favourite scripture passages, telling us to ‘Wait’.. James 1:12, Psalms 27:14, 130:5…. and so many more references. To ‘be still’ & ‘wait’, is a joyous & comforting place to be. O.K. I was rushing out this morning to play/sing @ a Community Gathering, but you set me up nicely, so appreciated & who knows, I could have been more laid back than usual in my offerings. Bless you & yours from me & mine. Peter (from over the pond).
Marlys Lawry
Dear Peter from over the pond – Thank you for your wise words. I read somewhere that waiting may be one of the hardest things God asks us to do. Blessings.
Peter Howe B.E.M.
Thank you Marlys. The ultimate ‘wait’ is Jesus’ second coming & we humans find it so hard to come to terms with, ‘the when’. We are not to know & time, distance, space, the unknown are not comprehendible & it is not for us to worry about, so we patiently ‘wait’. Bless you. Peter