Have you Stopped To Smell The Roses?
Ecclesiastes 3:9-13
9 What do people really get for all their hard work? 10 I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. 11 Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. 12 So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can. 13 And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God.
Have you noticed that in this crazy world that we live in, everyone is always busy rushing around? I know that recently I had a day where I just felt overwhelmed
with all that I was trying to accomplish in a short amount of time. I was starting to feel a little anxiety and stress creeping in. I knew that I needed to stop and breathe.
It is truly amazing what just inhaling and exhaling slowly can do for us. It helps us to reset physically as well as mentally.
Life gets so hectic at times that we forget to schedule a time to enjoy the simple things that bring us joy.
By the way what brings you joy, may be totally different from what brings me joy. Only you know what elevates your joy scale.
You see, what I have come to realize is that life is rolling by quickly and I have spent most of most of my life working. Most of you have probably done the same. I have also come to the realize that I don’t want to die without having lived. I want to have some moments and even days and weeks where I intentionally and purposely stop and take time to smell the roses.
So here’s my advice and this is something that I actually plan to do. I want to encourage you to make a list of things that you can do in just a few minutes of your day. This list should have things on it that will help you to escape the mundane and quickly get you into your joy zone. You may consider making several lists of things that you can do within different time frames. It will be a Bucket List of sorts of the things that make you feel like you have taken a few minutes to smell the roses.
When you are free from work for two or three weeks, plan a trip or visit a friend who is dear to you, that you haven’t seen in a long time. Maybe plan a road trip instead of flying so that you can really enjoy all of the wonderful sites along the way. If that’s too costly for you right now, take an afternoon and go to your favorite park. Go see a great movie. Dine with a friend at your favorite restaurant. Take a bubble bath or schedule a massage. Go buy yourself a beautiful bouquet of flowers. Eat the chocolate. Do something that brings you joy and do not feel guilty for loving and taking care of you.
I truly believe that God did not intend for us to walk around overworked and stressed out all of the time. He wants us to enjoy life. Sure there will be hard and stressful days and even hard seasons from time to time but overworked and stressed out should not be our lifestyle. Let’s take a break and go have some fun! Don’t forget to smell the roses along the way, afterall their fragrant smell is for our enjoyment.
Proverbs 17:22
22 A cheerful heart is good medicine,
but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength.
Ecclesiastes 9:7
7 So go ahead. Eat your food with joy, and drink your wine with a happy heart, for God approves of this!
