"Earth's crammed with heaven
And every common bush afire with God:
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes,
The rest sit round it, and pluck blackberries,
And daub their natural faces unaware."
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Every day, we are given a multitude of choices. To bask in self-pity or find the good in the day. To play outside in the backyard with my girls or browse through blog after blog. To lay down with my littlest one after a bad dream or dismiss it for my To-Do list. The choices could go on... As silly as this sounds, I've found recently that one of my hardest choices is between reading (a real book) and perusing the internet. I have always loved to read, but since having children, my desire for books has waned. With blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and other forms of social media, I (maybe we?) have been become accustomed to getting the information quickly and concisely without having to read paragraphs, pages, and chapters. If I get bored with one topic, I just open another browser for another one. I am not condemning all of these by any means.
But in my pursuit to incorporate the peace that God desires for my life, I truly believe that will come easier through the avenue of literature (spending more time in His Word, reading through my book list, and taking more time to read to my girls). I finally finished the book, Grace for the Good Girl by Emily Freeman this week. Incredible book! My next pursuit is a book that my sister lent to me (over a year ago...) titled Helper by Design by Elyse Fitzpatrick. I've only begun the first chapter, in which the above quote was found. She expands on it by asking the question, "When you look at the world, what do you see?" That is my desire this weekend... to really see.
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