Looking ahead at the next two months, I’m both excited and panic stricken. I’m thankful for many opportunities and doors God has opened, but I wonder if I’ll finish the summer more exhausted than ever! How can I scale back and travel light on this road God has mapped for me?
- Now we’re enjoying two weeks with family and friends in El Salvador. We’re drinking in all the tropical delights we can: daily rain, birds, and mangos from the backyard. My husband Jose —bless his heart and Lord, help us—has 5 speaking commitments.
- We’ll spend two weeks in Texas starting June 25th to visit our church family in Austin and my brothers in Dallas.
- July 7th we embark on a three week road trip to Washington D.C., then South Carolina. I’m thrilled to get to attend Proverbs 31 Ministries’ She Speaks Conference (my miraculous 50th birthday gift from friends).
- July 29th, I head back home to Turkey with our kids, but my husband will continue travelling. When we arrive, I’ll need a jump start to get my son ready for a trip to Germany two days later.
Scaling Back to Find Rest
Some things about our busy summer are beyond my control, but even with a full schedule, I don’t want to miss out on the spiritual rest that comes from living in the shelter of the Most High. I’ve felt God’s gentle nudge leading me to trim down my agenda where I can in an effort to be more present to Him and to the people I love this summer.
This means I’ll post just once a week on Faith Spilling Over until August 13th. You can look for posts on Wednesdays.
I have four reasons to write less this summer:
- I want to enjoy every opportunity God gives and be fully present to the family and friends we meet up with on the road. This week we have the privilege of celebrating my sweet Salvadoran mother-in-law’s 89th birthday.
- Scaling back on writing for two months is my way of telling God that He occupies first place in my heart. My relationship with God is more important than my call to write. Frankly, I’d rather use spare minutes to take a prayer walk or read my Bible instead of stressing out about posting on my blog.
- I want to be available to Jose, Andres, and Camille despite our busy agenda.
- I need extra time to prepare for a few speaking commitments I share with my husband.
I’d love to hear what’s going on in your neck of the woods. Does your summer look stressful or relaxing? Have you thought about ways to scale back to enjoy life and God more?
I want you to be able to scale back and get some much needed rest and recuperation even in the midst of the busy summer schedule. I hope you can go back home with a boost of energy which comes from rest. Love you much and look forward to seeing you soon.
Oh thank you, Sandy. I’m praying for your busy summer schedule and hope the same thing for YOU!
Yay! I’m so glad we will get to meet in person at the conference!
Hey Kristine! I didn’t know you were going to the conference. That’s great!
I love the picture of your beautiful family! Your schedule sounds exhausting, so while I will miss the second post every week, I’m happy for you that you’ve decided to scale back. I hope you have a healthy, reduced-stress, and happy summer of traveling!
Thanks, Deborah. I hope you’ll have a happy summer too!
Praying God will give you the rest you need this summer, amidst all the wonderful opportunities. We have VBS this week, and then we are “free” until August when we take the long road trip to Florida to help our son settle in for law school. Our plans for our free time include more writing–mine and my husband’s–gearing up for a new plan in the fall on the blog. Excited to see what God is going to do. Blessings to you, Betsy. Enjoy the rest of your summer.
I hope you have a great VBS week. Having extra time to write during July sounds lovely. After August 15, I hope to have a bit of spare time for that myself. Blessings to you.
No travel on the scheudual at this time for the next couple months so we will continue to work on school. We wish to add our 2 week bonding trip with our Haitian sibling group but continue to wait for our adoption referral. Praying that it comes soon and that the creche our children are at will allow Eli and Anna to come with us to bond. Praying for you! Fauche.
Thanks so much Kris! It’s good to hear news from you. Hope your adoption referral comes through soon.