Monday, January 13, 2014

S: Surrender


Surrender is a hard word and concept to swallow, mainly because it involves giving something up or even more than one something.

The sign language for this word illustrates beautifully and even physically this letting go of one thing and having open hands for what is better. There are varying options found on the web, but the way I learned was like you are holding a bucket at each side with your hands, you drop the buckets and bring your hands around and up so your palms are facing up open towards Heaven.

As I have been pondering slow one word that has consistently come to mind is surrender. Slow is a posture of surrendering: have you noticed that when we are in a hurry it creates stress? This posture of surrender agrees to choose God's way, realize we may not get everything done we think we must get done and choose a more manageable pace which will bring a calmer peace rather than a frantic haste.

For me, hurry/feeling rushed is one of the quickest ways to stress. It is one reason I love to work ahead and even make myself plan ahead more and more - the more I have done ahead, the more smoothly the transitions go.


Surrender.

Everything does not have to be perfect.
Everything does not have to be finished right this minute.

Remember Mary who chose to sit at the Lord's feet - she surrendered herself to a beautiful posture. And, remember this: my children only have one childhood, we only have these years together once. To hurry and rush through them is to completely miss the beauty in them.

Slow. Cherish. Enjoy. Surrender.