hesitate.
hesitate to recount.
hesitate to respond.
hesitate to react.
hesitate to rush.
hesitate to reset.
hesitate.
I am currently trying to edit and revise my book on anxiety, and I've heard from more than one person recently about the benefits of anti-anxiety medications. They supposedly provide a "reset button" for your mind, or as it was said to me, they "take the edge off so that you can think clearly before reacting." My book is not a "for or against" medication study. I think there are situations that require medication and others that do not. The book, instead, serves more as a basis for how to make daily choices in hopes of eradicating anxiety long term. It's ultimately one woman's personal journey with a universal application. That said, I think we all need a small dose of hesitation as it relates to our reaction time and our consumption time these days. When everything has a possibility of going viral, our opinions can spread as easily as a virus.
Even fools are considered wise if they keep silent and discerning if they hold their tongues. (Proverbs 17:28)
Everyone can benefit from a little hesitation in our words and actions these days. Certainly there times when obedience should be immediate. When duty and responsibility require an act of trust with zero hesitation. However, last year gifted us with time--time to practice the art of hesitation: slowness of speech, and reining our tongues while we reset our lives.
As a new year begins many hope for a "reset" button from the year past. But before we rush to hit reset on the world, maybe it would be wise to sit silently. Pray for the fallen, the wounded, the hurting. Silent prayers are not the act of the weak, but the power of the strong.
My boys have needed many a reset button these past days together. Their irritations stem from competing agendas, and in a moment of anger they have unintentionally caused their brothers injuries. Such frustrations and corresponding disciplines are age-appropriate, especially for a bunch of males living every single moment together. Still, I myself must practice the art of hesitation with corresponding prayer during our days together in hopes that they will emulate this lost art.
It is not a perfect art, as none ever is, but the more we see a trajectory shift from our hesitations, the more often and automatic our breathless prayers will occur, resetting our entire lives in the process. Then we can give grace in moments of hesitation and serve on the basis of love.
Here's to real prayer as we reset our calendars and begin with new mercies for each new day.
~CC
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