In preparation

You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:13

On the Jewish calendar, holidays and Sabaths begin at sundown the night before. Why? I was once told it was so they could prepare their hearts and minds for worship. By sundown all the physical things would be taken care of (meals prepared, house clean, laundry done, etc) so that they could begin focusing their minds on the true meaning of holiday or Sabath.

I need a time for preparation. I am going on a Ladies Retreat this weekend. It is entitled Spiritual Bootcamp. It sounds like something I need. But in order to get anything out of the weekend I need to do  a little work before hand. So tonight when I sat down to meditate I thought about what this weekend would mean to me. What did I hope to get out of it? I want God to show up. I have heard this phrase often in church settings, which is actually kind of silly. We are told where 2 or more are gathered God will be also. So I think when I say I want God to show up I am really saying I want to see, feel, hear, smell, taste the presence of the Lord this weekend. I am going into this weekend seeking God's face. I am promised that if I seek Him I will find Him.

Just as Jews prepare for their time to worship in advance so should I prepare to meet with my God this weekend. I prayed that God would prepare me mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. There stuff I need to get done before I leave on Friday. Things that if left undone will nag at my all weekend causing my attention to be divided. I know that typically during my time of meditation I try to keep myself from coming up with to do lists, but tonight was different. I have a friend staying at my house overnight Friday so that I don't have to board the dogs. Well my house isn't exactly clean. I have been doing intensive spring cleaning one room each weekend which means the other rooms are a bit more neglected than usual. Add to it that I didn't get any cleaning done this past weekend because I went to a thrift sale, my niece's birthday party and was at church almost the entire day Sunday. And speaking of the thrift sale, I got a bunch of great things for the house, but I haven't exactly found a place for it all so it is piled up in the living room. During my meditation an action plan of sorts formed in my head. At first I wanted to push it out of my head but then I remembered that I prayed for God to help me prepare. I have to say after my meditation time I was able get get all the thrift sale stuff put away (except for the 3 ft x 3 ft mirror that is suppose to go in my bathroom because I can't carry it up the stairs by myself). I stripped my niece's and nephew's beds. I tidied up the downstairs bedroom and vacuumed the bedroom and living room.  I still have stuff to do but it seems so much more manageable to get done in the next 2 days.

I am tired. I have not slept well in days. I go to bed early but I cannot stay asleep. I have a massage scheduled for Wednesday. I hope that relaxing my muscles will give me better rest.

As for spiritually preparing, the only thing I can do is make sure that I confuse my sins so that nothing is standing between me and God. God will have to do the rest.

To mentally and emotionally prepare... I think being physically prepared will go a long way in reducing stress and distraction.