While browsing Instagram I frequently came across the book Simply Tuesday by Emily P. Freeman. It looked good to me. It looked like a book I needed to read. The sub caption under the title is "Small-moment living in a fast-moving world." Yes, I needed that. My world has been spinning so fast the last number of months with moving, working, buying a house, remodeling a house, taking care of my husband and three children, that I definitely needed a reminder to slow down. I started reading the book and I felt I was sitting across the table having coffee with Emily, and she was simply just sharing her heart with me. I love reading books that make me feel like that. But, it was also like she was reading
Small moment living isn't a bad thing. It's good.
It's stopping to notice the little things in life.
It's remembering what's important.
It's acknowledging that I don't have to promote myself or make myself or my life something big, grand or to even be recognized.
It's about making the selfish part of me small, and the God inside of me BIG.
It's determining to be at peace with not being known by people, but knowing that the God of the universe sees and knows me.
Being small is being humble. It's intentionally putting God and others before me and my agenda.
And, it's about not rushing things. Let things be small. Let myself be small like a child. I have a lot to learn from children.
This book was such perfect timing for me and I hope that everyone gives themselves the opportunity to read it.
Some quotes from the book...
"Small is the position of my soul, the posture by which I approach others, God, and myself. When I'm small, I know I can't control opinions, manipulate outcomes, or force my agenda on others. When I'm small, I can move into the world confident as the person I most deeply am because I know I don't move into the world alone. If this is true, then small is my new free."
"Tuesday is the week's producer. What happens here, if done right, if done well, leaves no fingerprints-dinner around the table, laundry folded in the baskets, the meeting with the boss over coffee, five hundred more words toward the deadline. The big stuff of life we save for the weekend. Tuesday holds the ordinary, the everyday, and the small."
"What gives moments meaning is not the moments themselves but the presence of Christ with us in the midst of them. To learn to live well in ordinary time is to keep company with Christ on our simple Tuesdays and remember how he delights in keeping company with us."
"Jesus doesn't say, Come to me, keep company with me, and you'll learn to do nothing, to be passive, to never work again. He says, Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly. Being with Jesus brings a different kind of living and a different kind of working-the kind that starts with being."
Personally, what I take away after reading this book...
I don't want to promote myself in any way-in my thoughts, actions, social media, my conversations, my relationships with others, or in my heart.
I want to be "small" or humble...known by people. I want to be open, vulnerable and transparent with others.
I want to resolve to be happy with whatever place I am at in life. To be content and at peace, knowing God is in control and His timing is perfect.
I want to be free from all selfish ambition and know that my most important goals to accomplish are those that God has created and called me to. I can wait on God and let Him lead me.
I will continue to rest in the truth that God sees me, loves me, and has a great future for me. I can trust Him.