A funny thing happened last Saturday while the four of us were grocery shopping. Landmark was closing and we had to rush, so my husband and I had to split, him with Dawn and me with Rain.

So as I was pushing my cart through an isle of biscuits, a tall guy approached me. It would have been really creepy if he wasn’t carrying an adorable baby girl. He asked me, “Hello. Are you the one on Instagram, the one who’s selling Passion Cards?” I stared at him blankly with a dozen questions in my head, but his wife, standing behind him with their two other kids, jumped in to say “Hi, I’m Patti. I ordered some passion cards!”

The oddity of her recognizing me and Rain, and of us being in the same place at the same time was just, crazy. Good for her, she didn’t have to make a trip to the bank, she just paid me for the cards she ordered right there and then. Good for me, though it started out a bit weird, it ended up to be an affirmation that this *thing* is really going places! It reminded me that my labor is not in vain, and encouraged me to reach out and inspire more people with His Word and for His glory.

Hello, Patti, if you’re reading this. It was great meeting you, even in the weirdest of ways :)

There were a lot of unusual things that happened today. Like, actually resting on a Sunday, staying home, trading our Sunday best to pairs of pajamas, not working. I cooked lunch, D gave the girls a bath, we changed their diapers, fed them, sang them songs, watched Big Hiro 6, and when it was time for an afternoon nap, rubbed their tiny feet (just one of their many weird habits) until they fell asleep.

I spent some time in front of my laptop while the girls and their daddy napped, and I’m proud to report that I didn’t check my inbox or did anything related to work at all.

The four of us were feeling a bit under the weather the whole week. Some cold virus has come upon this house—first the twins, then their Daddy, and hopefully the cycle ends with me.

This day of rest did us good.

Although I feel like I disappointed some people, failed to show up where I was expected to show up, missed some deadlines and most likely a couple of emails too, I’m glad we made a deliberate choice to rest and be still today. To be quiet and allow God to speak to us, not from the church’s pulpit, but with His quiet reassurances throughout the day—

I am here. I’m with you. Wait on me. Trust in me. Rest in me. Be healed.

Time and time again I am reminded that there’s wisdom in being away from where the action is, taking the opposite direction, saying NO to many so that I can say YES to what truly matters, choosing rest over work, less over more. It’s one of the hardest lessons I had to learn since I became a wife and a mother. I had to make hard choices, unpopular ones, the kind that not a lot of people understood.

Truth is, I’m still learning. Admittedly, sometimes God has to knock me down with some cold virus so that I would be forced to rest, to listen.

Few years ago I learned about this place called “Brook of Cherith”. God instructed Elijah to go to a place of solitude and confinement and without a moment of hesitation, Elijah obeyed Him. That story wrecked me. Elijah was, after all, one of the greatest prophets ever told, and aren’t prophets supposed to be in the frontline and not in some hideout?

The Brook of Cherith totally changed the way I see obedience. It dawned on me that obeying God doesn’t always mean going into battle, doing BIG things for Him, meeting expectations.

Often, obedience requires quite the opposite—

Step away from the spotlight. Swim against the tide. Say NO. Trust. Hide. Rest.