Wednesday Thoughts

Nothing extraordinary...just a thought. 

As I have gotten older, it has become a difficult discipline to keep consistent, but having a quiet time of reading has proven to be a source of peace for me. Reading Scripture is paramount (hopefully that's obvious) but I will admit that I've found that reading in general has been a personal way of "feeding myself". Reading allows us to learn and be challenged and allows us to stop and breathe, even if just for 20 minutes a day. In school, I used to think 'as soon I get my degree, I will be free to read whatever I want'...and now that I'm living in the real world, I realize how much discipline and energy it takes to actually carve out time to stop and read. But I do have a strong conviction that reading, feeding myself through the quiet, and taking the time to learn and grow myself has a direct impact on the way that I lead others. As a worship leader, I'm leading people into the presence of God, and If I'm not feeding my soul in a way that allows me to go deeper and be reenergized, then I'm robbing the very people that look to me to lead them. This may not hit you like it hits me, but it's one of the lessons that I'm continuously learning. I was always taught that making quiet time a priority only gets harder as you get older, but living it has only made me more of an advocate for how important it is! And it's not just for people in an authority position. Hopefully you are leading people wherever you are, and if you are pouring into people, you first have to be poured into! So take time to read, learn about something and become passionate about it, and read the Word of God to be filled with God's truth, then lead others by cultivating conversation that breathes life!