I had the honor of speaking at the Women Walking with God conference in Wichita, Kansas in April. It was a very unique and blessed time of fellowship with more than a thousand other women of God, all who were learning of this promise together and reminding each other of its truth. 

I got to share the stage with some incredible women, all who had different perspectives on how this promise has been lived out in their lives and different challenges for those present on how to tap into God's refuge themselves. 

In studying for this opportunity, I had a chance to make this promise more real in my own life and when it was time to share I wanted to encourage my fellow sisters in Christ to simply trust that this promise is real. It can be experienced in a very real way, not in a purely spiritual sense, but in the same sense that God calls us to love him with our whole selves. 

Like the everything you need promise of 2 Peter 1:3, we can come to appreciate this promise is true in every part of us. We can learn to experience it in our spirit, our heart, our minds and our bodies. For some of us, we may need to think of things differently to make that happen. For some of us, we may have been taught or learned erroneously that God's promises are simply spirit promises. That God doesn't move beyond a bolstered spirit and calmed emotional state. 

I think a big part of why we sometimes fail to experience God's promise in real ways, is that that we fail to call every part of us into believing that promise is true. We don't ask our whole selves to get involved in mediating and submitting to these promises. We somehow think that just repeating the promise or simply believing it is true will make it happen. 

I believe we need to include our whole selves in the the practice of engaging in these promises. That our spiritual practices are meant to help us draw into God's promises and require that we use every part of ourselves to experience God's truths. If we do not engage our mind in a promise, how can our heart follow? If our heart is wrought with anxiety, unchecked, how can we hope to experience spirit level peace? If we do not adjust our thoughts or bodily behaviors, why would we expect some of these promises to be fully experienced by us in our real lives? 

To experience this promise of refuge in our real lives, we need to engage our whole selves by:

Engaging our hearts - to engage our hearts we need to acknowledge why we are seeking refuge. What is going on in our hearts that we need that peace? What are we seeking refuge from, exactly? What are you hiding under those wings for? 

Is it fear of judgement, unmet expectations, or of unmet desires? 

Are you afraid he will leave? Or they will not come home? That the children will never come, or that that that man of God will never be found? Are you worried the diagnosis won't be what you want? Or, that this struggle is too much? Are you afraid of what they think? Or, are your own thoughts the cruelest ones?

Are you fearful of failure? Or weary of the wrong kind of success? Are you worried? Anxious? Weary? Lost?

Acknowledge it. Say it. Give it a name. Write it down. Tell him. 

Engaging our mind - we so often forget how powerful our thoughts are. We want to not be so fearful, and yet we fill our minds with thoughts of "what if" and "but, I know someone". We do not always guard our minds against the chaos of the world, and really realize what all the words and input are doing to our spirit. 

We have to note to ourselves what our own minds are doing to our hearts. We need to evaluate what thoughts are feeding the fear, worry and anxiety; what thoughts are chasing us into the need for refuge, and which ones are we trying to beat back while we try to rest in that place of safety. 

We have to know we are having those thoughts, so we can shut them off. We need to take those thoughts captive, and change them. 

We need to listen to our own inner voices, and shut ourselves up when we are repeating lies, or causing more chaos by allowing repetition of things that only harm, and do not help our spirits rest. 
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Engaging our bodies - Finally, we need to get our bodies in the game. We have lots of clues in scripture on how to do this. First, be still. Stop moving. 

In your effort to experience refuge under God's wing, let your body and mind just be still. Take the time to pause, to note your surroundings, to note your thoughts, to acknowledge your heart. Stop moving and just rest for a moment. 

And, breathe. Take a deep breath. When you breathe in, let your mind focus on "refuge". When you breathe out, let your heart let go of that reason you were seeking refuge. 

In refuge, and out fear.

In refuge, and out anxiety. 

In refuge, and out thoughts of your being less.  

It is ok to get our whole selves involved in God's promises. Just like he wants us to love him with every part of us, he really wants us to experience him in every part of us. And, we can - we can learn to embrace peace in our spirit, heart, mind and body by centering each of those on Godly truths as we purposefully engage each. 

I hope you take the time to do that - under his wings is a really blessed place to be. 

Do you have other ways that you engage your whole self into God's promises? Do share!

In my struggle to learn how to be silent for the benefit of greater depth of knowing God, I have had some new awarenesses about the reasons it is so hard. As I mentioned a bit ago, stillness can be a challenge. For many of us silence is just as hard, and often times seen as nearly impossible. 

As I am learning for myself, silence is so very important. Just has one-on-one time is important to a husband and wife relationship, so is creating a space for silence to listen to God speak to us. In silence, in the absence of outside noises to distract us, we can nurture an ear for hearing God's still small voice. In that space we can make room for heightened gratitude, new mental connections, mediations on God's promises and new conclusions about God's character. In quiet, we can be better prepared to pray, to speak the longings of our hearts and hear God answer them. 

But, we have create a space. Silence, especially in our modern world is virtually impossible, or so it seems. There is noise everywhere, and we can literally surround ourselves with it from morning til night - even when we are alone, even in solitude. 

Silence in our world is foreign. Odd. Weird. Bizarre. To have a space that isn't filled with music, words, news, kids, families, and other sounds of activity takes work. Sometimes, a lot of work. We have to purposefully create a space of quiet - to be willing to shut off the noise we have perhaps unintentionally surrounded ourselves with. To note the things that are distracting our minds, our bodies, and our spirits and shut them off. 

Here are some things I am working on to be purposeful about creating space for silence: 

* Rising early. This is one is huge for me. Not everyone is a big appreciator of early mornings, but there is something sacred about that space in time while the world is still slow. That space allows for a purposeful dedication for the day, and allows for an appreciate of the fresh and new mercies of the morning.

Being a mom of boys, our chaos starts the second the kids wake up. To beat them by even a few minutes is a win in my book. 

* Turn off the noise. When I am looking for the space, I am quicker to note when I am filling my surroundings with noise. I immediately turn on the radio when we are in the car, or flip on the news while I am cooking dinner. In my desire for productivity, I find I am wanting to fill potential space of quiet with something that will quality as getting things done. But, for the moments when I need silence to hear, I am learning its okay to turn off the music, news and just do dishes in quiet. Its okay.

While it may not be perfect silence, I find that just removing a few things helps bring my mind into focus. 

Sidenote, often when I create space for quiet while my kids are around (i.e., the car) they often use that time to be quiet themselves. Or, take that time to share things on their heart that may not bring me closer to God (or maybe they will), but often they are things that will bring them closer to understanding God themselves. Silence isn't just for me.

* Get away. When I am craving silence in the middle of chaos, sometimes I just get away from the noise for a moment. Maybe it is by taking a quick walk (or drive) around the block,  taking a trip to the creek, hiding in my bedroom, or just go in the bathroom and close the door. A clean bathroom with a fan on can create some nice emergency quiet :) 

* Train your family. Yes, you can teach your kids that quiet is ok. Being home 24 hours a day together, having a space midday that is mandated quiet, is a given in our house. Its not silent, per se, but quiet. The kids know that is what we are doing - mom is going to disappear (mostly to my office, or room) and they are expected to do a quiet thing for at least an hour. 

We actually look forward to this part of our day. We plan around it. We know that no matter the business of the day, at some point there will be quiet. Kids even as young as infants can appreciate there being moments where things settle. Where the TV, video games, or music is off. Where voices are stilled and we are just quiet for  a bit. Even if things are silent, they can feel less busy by design. 

Its a good practice to teach our kids, and maybe it will be easier for them than it is for us because of it. 

* Stop talking. Genius. I know. I didn't realize how often we mandate in our culture the need to fill space of quiet with talk. In the car with our kids, over dinner, sitting in the room together - it seems weird to not speak. In the media, the one who wants to assert the power is the one who talks the loudest, is the rudest, is the one who gets more words in. How often do I create unnecessary noise with my own lips? So often. 

I am in the beginning stages of establishing a relationship with a Spiritual Director. Her most powerful tool so far is silence. She will ask a question or pose a consideration, and then just wait. She will watch me for ques that I am thinking deeply, and she will just ...wait. It was odd at first, but then strangely intimate. She draws me into a deeper awareness with God by her silence. Her quiet allows me to listen to God for myself. She also waits for words to share - and doesn't speak until they come. 

It has encouraged me to consider that same thing with others. Just, hush. Let them process in quiet. Let them be silent and think. Let them figure it out. 

I had a situation with my 12-year old this week - he wanted to talk, but like so many adolescents he had a hard time forming words. I practiced silence to help draw him out. It worked. His heart longings eventually were shared, and oh, they were the things momma's hearts need so much to hear. 

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Hush, sweet sis. Just be quiet. Shut out the noises. Let the quiet nurture your heart. Don't give up quiet moments to worthless noise. Create the space for the quiet. You need it. 

What do you do to create that space? Do tell, we need to hear all the ideas we can get!