Even during the hottest times, we can find shade and breezes.
My daughter and I have begun exercising together. We walk with a little running, several times a week. For years, I’ve tried to get her to exercise, just because it’s a great stress reliever, but she was never very interested. For whatever reason, this year, her senior year, she has decided to listen to her mama.
Maybe she’s getting wiser? (LOL)
We always begin our walks with a lot of talk, but as we work harder and breathe harder, we talk less. Yet, even though we don’t talk as much, we really enjoy walking together. It doesn’t take spoken words for each of us to know that we support each other.
A few days ago, we were walking and there was a nice breeze when we started. A little while into our walk, the breeze died and my daughter commented on how the heat was like walking into a wall, but as we walked a little further down the road, we hit some shade and when we hit the shade, we could run.
We never ran when the sun was beating down us. We walked during those segments.
Then there were the breezes that would encourage us to keep going. We reminded each other of the breezes we encountered on our mission trip last summer that allowed us to keep working in the all consuming heat.
I thought about that walk and our talk in the days that followed.
I thought about how those who we hold most dear don’t even have to share words with us to make us feel loved and encouraged. Just being near them is often enough.
I thought about life’s journey and how there are shady times when we can run and run, and we don’t even feel tired. But, there are also times when we can barely put one foot in front of the other, and we feel the sun ruthlessly beating down on us. If it weren’t for the breezes, we couldn’t keep going at all.
But, God is so faithful in sending those breezes in so many different forms. They can be a call from a friend, running into someone who can offer us guidance, prayers sent up on our behalf, being at the right place at the right time, discovering a brand new passion for something we enjoy, or reviving an old one, our church community, or a new job.
The breezes are anything and everything that God sends our way to lighten our load a little and give us hope. If we are vigilant, we can always find them and feel them, even when we feel we are in a desert kind of heat.
We need to remember that there are times on our journey to walk, and there are times to run. There are even times to rest, but most importantly, as children of God, we never walk alone.
A walk with my daughter reminded me. Perhaps you needed reminding too.
Have an awesome day!
Wendy 🙂