busy

why do we let ourselves get so busy?
i'm sure we'd all agree that we do it to ourselves. no one is making us busy against our wills. we keep agreeing to all of the busyness.
i'm learning that there is a major difference between busyness and hardship. some have a full plate dealing with issues of hardship (poor health, financial woes, etc). but, busyness is beyond that. sometimes we have both at the same time. hardship is often inflicted upon us, but busyness is brought upon ourselves.
when will we learn to quiet our hearts and minds?
it seems that too many people think God can speak louder than the noise. i'm not sure that, fundamentally, that is correct. i'm sure God can speak louder than the noise, for He can do all things. but, i'm not convinced that God would speak louder than the noise. His own Word tells us to "be still" before Him. He cannot contradict Himself, so i'm pretty sure that means to do it.
it is in those still moments when He speaks, not loudly, but clearly.
to be too busy is, in fact, too tell God to shut up. we choose cacophony over the still, small voice.

be encouraged, fellow journey-ers. God is patient with us when we bite off more than we can chew. He stays with us and says, "don't talk with food in your mouth. stay with Me and I will help you finish chewing and digesting all that you've taken on yourself. all that you're trying to eat will probably cause you heartburn and indigestion, but I'm here with you for that, too."

what a fool i am, o God. teach me to stay with Your quietness and to take time for the really important things, things i should do, not just things i can do.

deep sigh

finally it seems our email is working again.
please resume using jadamson@lovedtolove.org.
thank you.

baby moment

israel continues to grow and develop.
this weekend, he started to stand unassisted. he wobbles a bit, but not too bad. it's really funny because whenever he feels like he's started to slip, he tries to grip the floor with his toes. he tends to let his feet spread into the splits, but once he reaches a certain level, he just plops down on his butt.
this past saturday night, rhonda was folding some laundry. israel crawled over to the basket and pulled himself up to see what she was doing. she asked him, "are you going to help mama fold the laundry?"
he then proceeded to begin pulling a sock out of the basket. he looked at it for a moment and then tossed it over his shoulder like discarded goods. he then pulled another sock. he tried to pull a t-shirt, but it was stuck under some other clothes, so he just grunted a frustration and then went on to another sock. he then discovered underwear (which strangely was the things that he started to put in his mouth--we stopped him in time!), but eventually just tossed it over his shoulder, too.
Great God in Heaven, however it depends on us, let us continue to nurture in our son the desire to help and to work and to be a laborer for worthy causes, even if it's just laundry.

problems

first, let me officially notify you that our office email is down and has been for almost a week. we still have internet access, but no email is being delivered to or from our office network (except within the network itself). if you need to contact me, temporarily use adamsong22@msn.com for all communication. in fact, it would be helpful for you to cc to my regular lovedtolove.org account just to see when it reopens.

secondly, let me vent for a moment about communication break-down. i'm not specifically mentioning the email issues. they are unto themselves an inconvenience. but, i'm speaking more towards when words fail.
we've known nearly since it's inception that email is not the most reliable form of communication because you can't sense the writer's tone. that even goes back to typed notes and letters. same problem, different era. at least with handwritten letters you could...well...actually...no, it's not always reliable. even God's own Word, the Bible, has so many misinterpretations.
is there a way to improve communication?
yes!
what is it?
God only knows.
for now, my prayer is that people rediscover sincerity. say what you mean and mean what you say. speak love, compassion, generosity and verbalize disappointment, concern and correction.
please offer your stories of how communication improved in your life. i could use the help. (don't forget to send them to adamsong22@msn.com).