January 5th

Today I had somewhat a difficult time relating the Bible reading to the ODB story. The author of the devotional shares with us the example of a restaurant that shut down for 2 years to plan and reflect. I immediately thought of the challenge Anthony is facing with opening a new school. He has a year to organize a school without any real planning time. A friend in Colorado years ago was given the same challenge but was allowed to hire his office staff and have a year of planning and an additional year of implementation before opening the school. The process was less stressful as they, as a group, had time to reflect on what was important. The time of reflection was the most important variable.

In our faster paced culture we have departed from the concept of reflection; that includes our spiritual lives. That is one of the things I hope this chat room does for us. While it is easy to do the reading each day, it is the addition of having to write something that increases the amount of reflection we do on the topic. We continue to reflect as we read each others comments and realize that God works differently in all our lives. I especially enjoy the fact that we have three generations working on it. This will give us a greater variety of ideas. Please continue to share your thoughts as you reflect on God's word.

In today's society I imagine very few people devout time to reflect on much at all. Once we accomplish a task, we move on to the next one in order to accomplish as many as possible in our given time. As I type this, I am sitting on my front porch staring out over the ocean. What a perfect place this would be to reflect on a daily basis! Just need to make time for it.

Speaking about education, I recently read about a Charter school in New York that forces their teachers to take a sabbatical every 5-6 years. Interesting concept. What would society look like if everyone was somehow forced to reflect and take their own sabbatical every 5-6 years?

One other thought:

I believe there is a big difference between "reflection" and "meaningful reflection." I took a break from working to read today's passage about reflection, and tried to watch the ocean in an attempt to "reflect." The problem is I keep fighting work thoughts off in my mind and am struggling to concentrate. Even now I'm typing quickly so I can get back to creating a school application.

The hard part for me is to make it "meaningful" and really clearing my mind. Perhaps different times of day are better. We need to remember that the purpose of this exercise isn't to create an additional thing we need to make room for in our day, but to make it a meaningful and enriching activity.

Oh, this is a tough day to reply. Do I reply to the scripture or the reading. I guess I will choose setting aside time for reflection. This daily exercise is a good tool for me to not only do the reading but to spend a little more time thinking about the content so that I can actually write something. It's a great way to start the year and hopefully we can encourage each other to be faithful.
As a new year is beginning it was good to think about my routines. Sundays for example, I like to set the day aside to go to church and then spend time with family or friends and time for rest, reflection and planning. So it was good to look back and evaluate my "day of rest". Has it become like any other day or do I set this day aside to be different. So...tomorrow after church we are going to lunch with friends to catch up and to encourage one another.

I go to school and go to baseball and I need more time to think about god.And I need to work on that.

We all are busy with school,sports,work,and other things but we all need to stop and think about how great our God is.At night I usually pray but sometimes I will be so tired or thinking I will forget.Sometimes I will start praying and end up in my own world.I need to work on having a better relationship with God.

Today's reading comes after my kids and I missed a day. Hopefully when school starts we will work this into our regular routine.

This year I have been apart of a discipleship group that meets once a week and we are reading through the Bible in a year. Some days I do my reading and reflect in my journal (which is expected) and some days I read and reflect only because it is expected or to just get it done. I need to make sure I pick times to pray and reflect when I am not going to be rushing to something or interrupted. Sometimes I find these moments easier to come by than other times and sometimes these moments are found outside a volleyball gym or during a baseball clinic (hence the large purse).
Better than (or easier to understand) the Saul and Barnabas connection my mom one time pointed out to me all the different times Jesus took time to be with God. My favorite example to remember is when Jesus goes into the garden early in the morning and after He has prayed awhile He goes to check on the sleeping disciples. Seeing that they are still sleeping He goes back to praying. He didn't take time right in the middle of a busy day or when people would be looking for Him. Yet,other times when He was wore down He did excuse himself from the masses.

Like some of you mentioned I find the lack of reflection time relevant in other areas of life too. I notice it most in kids. Kids are so over scheduled that they are rarely have time for reflection. For kids reflection often happens during unorganized play. When my kids have friends over to play it is interesting to see which kids can play without adult interaction and which ones need instruction or guidance to play. They don't know how to play because they have not been left alone to figure it out or make sense of play. Very similar for me and reflection. Reflection time is something I'm still learning to do.

I think each generation goes by thinking we are more and more over-scheduled - and that's probably right. Maybe there will be a movement soon for a return to a new sabbath. Not one of strict rules and "thou shalt nots," but one where we truly take a day to reflect and rest. Today I read and article in Sunset magazine about an "unplugged" family. They declared their house a tech-free zone. They only had a rotary phone and kitchen appliances as their modern conveniences - no screens of any kind. Kids were encouraged/forced to read, create, play outside, rest, and reflect. We don't have a TV, but we have PLENTY of screens. When we have a great day where the kids played merrily and mom and dad didn't get stressed out, at the end of the day we usually realize that it was a slower, tech-minimized day. Something I've tried to do is only schedule or plan 1 major event for a day, especially on the weekend. The rest of the minor events (eating, dressing, etc.) will fill up the day.

A couple of interesting thoughts: Did you ever notice the command was to REMEMBER the Sabbath AND keep it holy? Can't do nothin ya don't remember. Also, when the Israelites went to war, everybody fought, so in some sense everybody was part of the army. Except it you had a baby, the men were given a whole year off from military duty when a baby was born. Those are some good priorities and benefits!