My favorite day of the week is Thursday. When I tell people that, they usually laugh and ask, “Why Thursday?” My response has always been, “because it’s so close to the weekend and the anticipation of what’s to come is so great….
… but then Friday comes and goes and before we know it’s Sunday and we are preparing for the week to come.”
Thursdays give us hope. Hope for fun, relaxation, and the anticipation of events or even time to catch up on household chores.
Thursdays mean family night for the Cowles Herd. It means sitting at the table giggling, playing games and watching the peace on my family’s face.
Thursdays mean REST is coming.
What I don’t share…the thing I keep deep down and hold in my heart… Thursdays give me the illusion that somehow I am in control.
If I plan our schedules perfectly and I have every detail laid out, the week will go smoothly and we can have a restful weekend. So I stress and worry and remind “the herd” of things to come and set alarms so that everything will be perfect!
I allow the busyness of our schedules to take precedence over rest.
Lately our Thursdays have been filled with senior projects, advanced art class pieces due, baseball games, homecoming, prom and soon a high school graduation. While I still pour all of myself into all of these fun events, I miss our simple family nights.
Thursdays have become my continual insistence that I am in control… and for some reason I still think that my worrying about the problem will help.
What if I laid it all down? “Lay it all at His feet” and give up control? That’s easy to say but so hard to do.
Why do I feel the need to pick it back up again and worry about things I can not control? Like worrying about the possibility of rain on graduation day is somehow going to help!
When has He ever not “shown up”?!
What if we started to see God in the random phone call, the kind invitation to dinner, that “if one more thing gets added to my schedule, it might make me lose it” thing.
What if He is in everything? What if we are missing it because we are looking at the busyness of our week, instead of looking to Him?
God, “who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think…” (Ephesians 3:20)
… then who am I to think that my days are in my control? What if I tried to calm the choas inside of me, instead of trying to control the chaos around me?
So as we make our plans and as school is soon to end, I’m looking forward to more Thursdays. Looking forward to games and laughter and REST, but also, choosing to look for Him in my “simple Thursday”.
Lord, help me to find rest and peace in You, during these weeks of chaos… and help me to once again enjoy my simple, small, Thursdays.
Cowles Farm 