Simplicity

1 Thess. 4.11:
Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life...NAS
Aspire to lead a quiet life...NKJV
Make it your aim to live a quiet life...GNT
Study to be quiet...KJV

Something tells me the struggle I have to live simply is not uncommon to man. What is uncommon is the choice to make it our ambition. We seem to be surrounded with all kinds of other ideas about how to live life. The goal is rarely quiet living. People cram their days full, succombing to the notion that the more we do, the more life we will have experienced. After all, you have to grab for all the gusto you can get, right?

Wrong! Totally wrong!

Many of my clearest and warmest memories from childhood the are the common place, run of the mill happenings. The morning bathroom schedule. The smell of dinner cooking. The nighttime darkness of country living. The Saturday morning Western Jamoboree (to this day I love Westerns!) Grandma's molasses cookies from her cookie jar. The creek running beneath the bridge out in the back field which provided hours of playtime fun. The smells and sounds of the yearly hay harvest. Falling to sleep listening to Enrico Caruso singing great tenor arias.

I want to make sure that my children have special, once-in-a-lifetime memories - but even more, I want them to remember the rhythm of routine life here. And I want it to be full of Jesus, Mom and Dad and family, church (His Bride), and love.

So my goal for the next season is to regain rhythm - a good, steady rhythm. Somehow there is delight in that, and I'm more than ready for it.