Posted By admin on June 25, 2010

It is summertime.

It is exceedingly hot.
Hotter than normal.
Hotter than August should be.

And yet, as it often is with children in the summer, we spend many hours a day outside.
We’ve been swimming, playing, bouncing, hiking.
We have picnicked, done yard work.

We have laughed, sweat, cried, whined…(the heat has made the children uncomfortable too!)

We have been thirsty.

I went to bootcamp the other night, and we spent our workout outdoors.  In the heat.  The fact that it was evening should have cooled us off, but it was still 90+ that night, so we weren’t enjoying the cool evening breeze.

It was an endurance contest and I didn’t feel as though I was winning.

On the way home I had to stop by the store.  We were out of bananas, bread and there was a sale on chicken.

It would be a quick stop, so I took my drippy self into the store, rather than having to run back out once I was cleaned up.
Oh how far I’ve come.  Normally I would never let myself be seen so sweaty and yucky!!

While in the store, I grabbed the items that I needed.
I also found juice boxes for the kids.  3 bottles of juice that we couldn’t live without.
Then there was the bottles of Vitamin Water that I had to seek out.  I bought 5 of those.

I was thirsty.

Today, we got home from the pool and I right away poured myself a cup of water.  Rather than drinking it, I went on with changing everyone out of their wet things.  Upon my walks through the house, I found my water bottle.  I went and filled it up, and then hurried outside to hang wet towels, forgetting to take a drink.

Later, I found my 2 drinks sitting side by side, still full waiting to be drunk.

And I realized that I was thirsty.

Our spiritual life is like that too.
We spend our time out in the heat, working, playing, being busy.

And we forget that our spirit is getting dehydrated.
We fill up all the cups, ready to drink them, but get busy with life, with duty, with then unimportant – the things that could wait while we refill and refresh – and we forget to drink, to fill our souls.

I find that the summer time is one of my most difficult times in my walk with God.  I am busy entertaining my children.  There is no structure at our house.  There are hours of running, doing and little time for just being.

I forget to be still, to pray, to draw close to my Savior, and I get thirsty.
And when I am thirsty for God, everything suffers until I take the time to refresh in Him.  My temper flares, my house is messy, I am tired, cranky, emotional.  I am in need of a break and dissatisfied with my life.

And I don’t want to be thirsty anymore.

I want to run, to rest in Him.
To drink my fill and be refreshed.

John 4:13  Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

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