Dwell…

Peaceful morning. Ezra woke up around 0745. I stumbled out of the bedroom to brew coffee. While the water was heating, I found my Bible. Buried in a bag in the corner of the kitchen.

After yesterday, I wanted to start the day off right. I set the Bible on the top of the dishwasher, and kind of looked at it for a second. The words of a friend resonated in my mind:

I was discussing this phenomena of “alone time” with another friend today, and she said, “The worst is when you’re a Christian mom and you are told you have to have a ‘morning quiet time’ to be a good Christian….when did we decide we had to do it this way? It’s not like it’s a Biblical mandate to be alone in your closet first thing in the morning.”

I took a breath. My eyes were still kind of blurry and my head was fuzzy.

I’m gonna wait. 

Ezra was playing quietly in his room–not even fiddling with the door.

I’ll check Facebook, read a few blogs, try to wake up first.

I’m glad I did. A half hour later I felt like my brain was much more ready to absorb what God wanted me to read today.

God, Ezra is getting restless in there. I don’t have a lot of time to read a lot this morning. Give me something. Please.

I opened the Bible to the pink bookmark. Hmm…did I already read Psalm 36? It looks vaguely familiar. Yeah I kind of remember that verse there. Okay, moving on…

I read three verses. Three.

This Bible is different. The verses are laid out in different formatting. It’s a different version.

“Trust in the LORD and do good:

dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.”

Psalm 37:3

The command to dwell caught my eye and stopped me.

Dwell.

What does that even mean?

Blue Letter Bible App…King James Version. “So shalt thou dwell…” a verb sounding something like shakan.

Settle down, abide

In other passages in the Bible it’s translated as rest.

Today I want to dwell. Dwell with my family. Settle down. Sink into this land that is my life. Really breathe everything in.

Rest.

Dwell.