Finding Rest On A Wild Ride
The past five months have been one crazy ride. Think “Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride” with some spinning teacups and a “Tilt-A-Whirl” thrown in the mix. I’ve traveled extensively for speaking engagements, launched a new devotional for women (Find Rest), launched a curriculum about relationships and money (Men, Women & Money), traveled the country for research for our next book (also about relationships and money), battled sickness that knocked me down hard (well, actually, my staff sent me straight to bed with no excuses), walked our daughter through her college-acceptance-and-high-school graduation season (how is that possible?!) and experienced the difficult journey with my family as my dad suffered a massive stroke. It has been absolutely insane. Yet in this crazy season, I have seen the miraculous evidence of God’s hand sustaining us every step of the way.
But that doesn’t mean I don’t occasionally feel weary and tired and long for the rest my Heavenly Father so willingly offers when I just come to Him. Oh, how I long for that! I know many of you feel the same. And many of you have been asking for updates on this season. So I wanted to share a few!
Surrounded By God’s Creation
Right now I am experiencing the best antidote for stress and worry: time with my family, staring in awe at God’s creation in the Colorado Rockies—a place so beautiful it looks like stage scenery. Jeff and I are speaking to a group of wonderful people and their families at a convention, but it is also allowing us to unwind, connect with each other and, you guessed it, to find rest. And with very little cell service (alternating between one bar and no service at all depending on where you’re standing and whether the wind blows!) it’s becoming easier and easier to take those deep soul breaths and slow down.
It also is becoming easier and easier to look at the majesty of these mountains and remind myself that the God who created all this with a word of His power, has our lives firmly in His hand.
Update On My Father
Many of you have asked about my father. I wish I could share more promising news but the truth of the matter is that things are challenging and we are simply trusting that God is in control.
Thankfully, Dad is generally medically stable. But although we had hoped that he would make greater strides in recovery through rehab, the damage to his short-term memory from his recent stroke is simply not allowing that to happen. He was in regular hospitals and acute rehab hospitals for 2 ½ months, then in a sub-acute rehab facility. And he will shortly be moved back home with Mom, at which point he will need 24/7 full-time care from a caregiver. We are praying for God’s provision of the right person/team of people to help.
And we are currently still planning to build a large addition onto our house that will allow for enough room for my parents and a caregiver to move in with us. We are trusting God to fill in the gaps and to show us the next right step in His timing.
Thank You
For now, I’m taking the time to thank God for this opportunity to slow down and reflect. And thank Him for the opportunity to do what I am called to do—teaching others about what I have learned through these many years of social research. I am also extremely grateful for each of you and your continued prayers for my father’s healing, for wisdom on how to proceed in doing the next right thing and for being my faithful companions on this wild, crazy journey called life.
Please take a moment to post a picture of your own “Find Rest” moment on social media using #findrest or on my Facebook page.
Looking for encouragement for your life and relationships? Learn about the little things that make a big difference in every relationship, from marriages to parenting. Subscribe to updates from Shaunti here!
Shaunti Feldhahn loves sharing eye-opening information that helps people thrive in life and relationships. She herself started out with a Harvard graduate degree and Wall Street credentials but no clue about life. After an unexpected shift into relationship research for average people like her, she now is a popular speaker and author of best-selling books about men, women and relationships. (Including For Women Only, For Men Only, and the groundbreaking The Good News About Marriage).
Her latest book, Find Rest: A Women’s Devotional for Lasting Peace in Busy Life, focuses on a journey to rest even with life’s constant demands.
Visit www.shaunti.com for more.