Using the time - Ideas to help your reflections

Being Quiet can be difficult, but it can also be creative, therapeutic and very relaxing.

Allow yourself time and enjoy the space you have to do things that you don’t normally have the time to do. Here are some ideas – note some of the things are not about doing at all but more about ‘being’:

• Read a passage of scripture, slowly. Read it again and notice anything that seems to stand out for you.
• Take just one word or phrase from the passage and chew it over, meditate on it, see where it leads you.
• As you reflect on it remember to take time, to pause and listen to the Lord.
• Go for a walk and ask the Lord to be your companion as you ponder something from the meditation. Allow yourself just to ‘be’ in His presence as you walk together.

• Find somewhere to just sit and enjoy the peace and quiet – rest in your ponderings.
• Do a collage – take pictures out of magazines that mean something to you and cover a piece of craft paper with them - be free in your creation of it.
• Use crayons or pastels to doodle, to cover a piece of paper in colour, to enjoy the freedom of expressing your prayer or how you are feeling/thinking in a different way.
• Go for a walk with the Lord as your companion. As you walk take time to look around you, to smell the different fragrances, to touch the different textures, to listen to the various sounds. Talk to the Lord about the things your senses are noticing.
• Write a poem, a prayer, or a letter to God.

Relax

Move into a time of silence and stillness. You may want to have some music playing quietly in the background. During this time focus your thoughts on the Lord Jesus Christ and if they wander, just bring them back.

Pray

Ask the Lord to open your heart and your mind to His word and His Spirit ministering to you.