Laura Murray's blog

I've always known that the every day, at the same time, in the same place, quiet time has never worked for me.  Let me clarify, it has rarely worked for my spiritual life.  Sounds pretty sacreligious, but let me explain.

I'm supposed to be taking a Sabbath day today from work.  So, how a nursing mother does this I don't know, but I'm going to try.  I believe I am violating my Sabbath by even being on my computer, but it was my day to blog today and I didn't find someone else to fill in for me.

So rather than coming up with something to blog about I want to ask you something.  What gets in the way of your Sabbath time?  What excuses do you find to not rest?  What can you do to find rest today?

"Be fruitful and multiply".  This is the command given to the man and the woman in the garden and recently I was reading through a book that said that this is the best reason we should have children, because God commands us to.  I read this and it just rubbed me the wrong way.  I've been trying to discern whether it is because I just don't like being told what to do (especially since it begins with something called "labor") or is there something else?

Who do you know who is a gracious stumbler?  No, I’m not talking physically, but in life.  Where are the role models for handling stumbles whether they be sin stumbles, failure stumbles (different than sin stumbles), mistake stumbles (again, different than sin stumbles) or any other kind of stumble? 

“We will move forward when our hope for the future is greater than our stories of the past.”

In Let Your Life Speak, Parker Palmer quotes Frederick Buechner saying that vocation is "the place where your deep gladness meets the world's deep need".  To answer the question of what the world's deep need is relatively simple, but to answer where are deep gladness is requires a bit more work.

Jealousy reared its ugly head as I watched my now 11 week old soon cooing and smiling at the sweet woman who helps takes care of him while I'm at work.  Didn't expect that one!

Becoming a new mom has brought out many thoughts and emotions and I never expected jealousy to come forth like it did.

Our minds are a battlefield and in different seasons of life there are different battles happening.  Currently, my battle has to do with fear of losing my son.  Each night I have at least one irrational fear that enters my mind of something horrible happening to him.  I have the choice in the matter - to linger and dwell on or move away from.  I am reminded each time of 2 Corinthians 10:5 that says: