Dad sat down with me in the New Year of 2018. He asked me to consider a few tasks for my life. I will be sharing these in the New Year as a form of inner resolution. We talked together about preparing for the day through silence, listening, and prayer. Dad often sat with his eyes closed. He entered a space of listening to God. This was his time to prepare his heart to receive God’s Word. 

When I am frantic, frenetic, anxious, rushing, and pressured, I am not in God’s plan. Dad reminded me of the story of the sower and the seeds. Seeds that fell and were choked out by thorns represented lives strangled by the cares and worries of this world. Fruit cannot grow in anxious, thorny soil. Dad believed true peace was anti-fragile and became stronger when attacked. A verse we loved together was, “God will keep in perfect peace, him whose mind is stayed on Him.” As I spend time listening to God and preparing to receive His gifts for the day, my gift is perfect peace, and the Word is not choked out of my life through anxiety. I can be where God wants me to be. 

“Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the Word and at once receives it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the Word, they quickly fall away. The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the Word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the Word, making it unfruitful. But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the Word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” – Matthew 13:18-22

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