Words (:

Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve posted! I’ve made significant progress at processing through things as I go (some of you know that’s a HUGE deal) but I haven’t gotten very good at sharing it with others yet. At least not with those who aren’t immediately around me. This week as I took a break from social media I was reminded of the importance with sharing what God has been teaching me on here and with the people that matter to me most.

Life in Portugal has its ebbs and flows, some weeks are extremely busy and some days aren’t so much, but I have been learning so many important lessons through it all. One of the biggest lessons I’m learning is the importance of REST. My whole life has been lived on the go. If you looked in the backseat of my car at any point during high school or college you could find a significant portion of my closet and everything I would need to be gone for days at a time. I had a bedroom at home and a dorm room but I never knew when I was going to sleep or how many days it would be before I went home again (especially in college). I was almost always prepared for a spontaneous trip to the beach or to a football or basketball game in another town. My mentality for the most part was “Sleep is overrated I can do that when I’m dead.”

After spending the summer in Clearwater, I began to understand what it meant to rest. My senior year I longed for the days when I could go hammock by the lake and made it a priority to do it as often as possible. But I never understood how much I needed those times until I packed my bags and moved to another country.

Initially I listened to my supervisors advise to take a day off each week to rest and spend time with God but I slowly slipped back into my GO GO GO mentality. I didn’t really believe that living in another country and learning a new language could be so exhausting. I stayed up late and got up early, until one day I just couldn’t anymore. In the middle of one of our busiest times I was at home trying to mentally rest and sleep off the sickness and exhaustion. I finally realized that I actually needed the Sabbath day that God commanded so for the past few weeks I have been trying to make that a priority.

This week on my day off I listened to a podcast by Jefferson and Alyssa Bethke (check them out on iTunes, they’re pretty great!). I was reminded of the idea that God sometimes gives us a word for each season of life. Many of my friends did this at the beginning of the year, and I thought it was cool but never took the time to actually pray about it. Tuesday as I read my Bible, reflected on what I’ve been learning lately, prayed and asked God for an answer, these are the words He gave me!

Abide. Rest. Wait. Stay. 

Abide in who I say I am.

Rest in my loving arms.

Wait in my presence.

Stay 100% where you are until I tell you to go somewhere else.

If you’ve never heard of this, Alyssa does a great job of explaining this here in the post about New Year Goals and she gives a few examples from her own life. Everyone is different But I strongly encourage you to give it a try. You can ask for one for this year, for the season you’re in right now or even a new season you have coming up (for those of you changing jobs, graduating from college, etc.) It can be something God wants you to learn about His character or an area he wants to stretch you in. There’s no cut and dry answer or right way to do this, just have fun with it! Enjoy your time in the presence of God as you seek Him and wait on Him to answer. And I would love to hear what they are as you figure it out (:

Love and miss y’all dearly! How can I be praying for you?

Bejinihos,

Amber