By Pastor Mark Moreno

Slow Down

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

Everybody is so busy these days. We want our cars to go fast, our computers to go faster. We pack lots into our daily schedule by getting up early and staying up late. We work, we keep busy, and we often don’t pause for rest.

I was at a worksite volunteering for a local organization, when my daughter came up and had these flowers in her hand. The worksite was dirty, sod hadn’t been laid, and the sound of construction work echoed in the air. I was sweaty, covered in sawdust, and my daughter wanted to show me these flowers she had picked from the site.

It is sometimes hard to see beauty in the everyday. One minute I’m measuring two by fours, the next my daughter shows me these flowers. It made me pause. I have always appreciated that my daughter (and others) see things differently than I do. I can too often get caught up in my world, my schedule, that I don’t see much outside of that.

How about you? Do you “stop and smell the roses”? Or are you more like me, and find yourself running behind a hectic pace?

Consider Matthew 6:28-29,

“And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these”.
English Standard Version

Our Lord invites us to see beauty in the everyday, because He is the one that is with us, providing for us, loving us. Even when we are too busy to see Him, He sees us. In Matthew 6, Jesus makes it clear that He sees beauty in the everyday, and He sees beauty in us.

I encourage you to make a goal of slowing down, of using your eyes to see the hidden beauty that is around you. Having a shift in your perspective can be a blessing, not only for you, but for those in your life.

Copyright Family of Christ Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado