Permission to Pause! Episode 2: Find Strength in RELEASE !
Hi Friend, welcome to episode #2 Of Permission to Pause Podcast.
Isaiah 32:17 The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever.
Sometimes it is not easy to live with women! I grew up always being referred to as “the oldest daughter” in a home with 3 younger sisters. We could go from “cat fight” to best friends in a milli second. There were times in our home when you could not tear us girls apart with a crow bar then there were those times when crow bars were considered for things that should remain unspoken. We were an emotional rollercoaster of girls! As founder and leader of a woman’s ministry, my life has not changed much!
When I was very young, my Dad taught all 4 of us girls how to water-ski. You might imagine the amount of patience that took! We would go out in our family boat into the middle of the lake where one of us girls would jump into the water. We would each take our turn around the lake as many times as we could go without falling. Once you fell your turn was OVER and another sister was waiting to jump in and take your place. If I fell too soon, before I was ready to give my turn up, I would struggle with all of my might to grab that ski rope back and try again before another sister jumped into the water to take my spot. I would gather up all the 8 year old strength I could muster to get that rope back into my hands. I would flounder and struggle in the water with all that gear attached to me. A life jacket the size of a small car and water skis that reached a mile high into the ski, crisscrossing through the struggle. I would just get exhausted trying to get to that rope in time not to lose my turn.
I can remember my Dad calling out to me, “Pat, just relax, lay back on your life jacket and I will bring the rope to you!” And he would. I would rest in the water and my Dad would drive the boat slowly and carefully around me until the ski rope would just float right into my hands. No struggle, no fear of missing it, no one jumping in and taking my place.
After 30 years of women’s ministry, I have often either found myself in a similar situation or watched a sister in her struggle to grab something she was afraid she might lose. A ministry spot, a child, a husband, maybe another friend.
Sometimes, we feel that if we don’t struggle and strive, we will lose our “turn”. That somehow, what God has called us to do, have or be, will be missed or that another “sister” might jump in and take our spot. When those times come in my life, I try to remember the words of my Dad, “Pat, just let the rope come to you.”
Maybe you can relate sister, maybe you have been struggling to make something happen in your life or to protect a position or opportunity that you are afraid if you don’t fight for, you will miss.
In this moment of PAUSE, Let’s listen to the words of our Abba Father girls, let’s just relax in the moment, let’s learn to trust God to “bring the rope to us”.
He is able. He is willing. He is wise.
Isaiah 32:17 The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever.
Abba Father, thank you for this time to quiet my heart and mind and pause in your presence. Thank you for reminding me that you have control of the boat in my life. You will not let me miss my turn Lord, nor will you “replace” me with anyone else.
Join me on my website for a FREE RESOURCE called BREATHE–for your prayer and quiet time, even if it’s in the bathtub or the carpool line. Also some ideas on how to apply this Pause moment later in your week as well as some additional resources.