Pausing To Praise Archives - SheilaKCampbell.com

Duty, Desire, and Delight

I jump out of bed eagerly anticipating the day. It is early and my only day off in a six-day workweek filled with the obligation of my job. Today is Sunday, and I can choose between duty and desire. Today I am not governed by the clock. Today I can read for as long as I want the books that beckon for space in my spare margins. And today there is time to pour out words like water from my soul. I may do some of these things later today, but that is not why I have jumped from my bed eager to start my day.

Teach Us to Number Our Days

Teach us to number our days….The old King James translation still echoes in my mind when I think of this verse. As a teenager, I thought this verse meant we were not to waste a single minute of our day. We were to be as productive as possible with every single day, every single hour, and every single minute. But reflecting on the impact of Psalm 90:12, I discovered it’s not about constant productivity but a deep relationship with God.

What We Seek

As I took my dogs on a much-needed walk through the fields, I thought about a quote I recently read from Ralph Waldo Emerson, “What we seek we shall find. What we flee from flees from us.”
Thinking about this quote, I wondered, “What I am seeking this year? What do I want 2024 to hold for me?”

Falling Leaves and Passing Seasons

Beautiful autumn leaves remind me of the passing of time and the intertwining of joy and sorrow. Thanksgiving is an opportunity to embrace both blessings and grief and acknowledge that both shape our human experience. Life is complex and we wholly live when we can hold both gladness and grief with gratitude.

Today: A Day to Live Life Deliberately

The calendar has turned to September and the days are noticeably shorter. Summer has passed. The changing seasons remind me how quickly time passes. I don’t want to waste it. I want to live life deliberately, and to live life well. When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he taught his followers to simply pray for today. “Give us this day our daily bread.”

A Summer Pause

Summer’s long days, warm sunshine, and outdoor activities are cherished, but finding balance between work and rest is hard. If we’re not intentional, we will spend all our time running through summer and no time actually being present in it. But pausing to enjoy peaceful presence can be essential to finding peace and contentment, especially in the midst of busyness.

Faith for Enough

As I come to my morning quiet time, the house is still and dark. I look forward to this time every morning. I come to this place and believe God will meet me here. I have faith He is enough for this moment, this day, this life.
That’s my ideal morning. But many days are not so serene. Often my thoughts are running rampant from the minute I wake up and despite my repeated attempts, I cannot seem to quiet them for more than a minute before I am once again thinking about the worries and trials that fill my small world.

Windy Wishes

Last week I was longing for spring as I battled a cold north wind all day. This week, warmer temperatures, and high winds leave me longing for summer. Spring in the Texas Panhandle is rarely idyllic. Most of the time, it is a windy battle between winter and summer. Much of the time, I find myself longing to be someplace other than where I am today. So how do we find contentment?

Peace Amidst the noise and haste

Go placidly amidst the noise and haste and remember what peace there may be in silence.
I often think of this line when I find myself in a crowed store brightly decorated for the holiday and full of people noisily shopping and in an anxious hurry to get finished and go on to ‘the next thing’ (whatever that may be). Amid the chatter of hundreds of conversations, the squeak of carts, the clatter of items being loaded and unloaded, the rustle of plastic bags, the beep of scanners, the scolding of children, and the faint hum of Christmas music, I will sometimes remind myself to slow down and ‘remember what peace there may be in silence’ and it is the silence of my heart that opens my eyes.

An Autumn Day

When I was a young mother, it often seemed like summer days would stretch out almost indefinitely and there seemed to always be another day just around the corner to do all those things my children and I wanted to do. But all too soon, the days would shorten, the nights turn cooler, and before long the leaves would be falling from the young trees in our yard

Category: Pausing To Praise