God spoke today in flowers, and I, who was waiting on words, almost missed the conversation. -Ingrid Goff-Madoff

Did you know that God speaks to us in our love languages?

I recently taught a class on love languages and learned this most fascinating truth- For me, it’s quality time. And it’s in beauty and nature and stillness that He romances my heart with a wrecking force. That’s why moments and memories like these, in quiet and beautiful places are so influential to me. That’s the part of trips like these change me from the inside out.

One of my favorite things in the jungle is a rain shower. It’s majestic to me. But more than that, it’s a sunset with it. On the edge of a mountain, overlooking the vastness of the ocean with no end. All I can see is pink in the sky. All I can hear are raindrops hitting jungle leaves the size of me, my miracle toddler singing with joy, and the sound of the evening wild coming to life. That’s the atmospheres that God wildly speaks to me in often times the quietest ways.

It took a sunset and a jungle rain shower colliding, where I finally felt my world slow down in an instant. My heart palpitated as I took deep breaths to take it all in. I felt like I could breathe deep for the first time in a long time and take in the here and now for the glory that it is. Welcome to a feeling that I have longed for. This is what we call our sabbatical…

Our lives have landed in the depths of so many areas that our hearts beat for in this season of our life. We call it spinning so many beautiful plates. Family life, full time ministry in many avenues, church, podcast, work, etc. And sometimes in the midst of it all, God calls us to rest. He calls us to recharge and to refill. To settle and still. To be together without interruption. That’s what this time was about. To be refreshed as to the precious lives that we live and to come back with newness in our spirit.

It was life giving. It was calm. It was reflective. It was energizing and reconnecting. Most of all, it was all the things that God knew our hearts needed desperately. We chased waterfalls and jumped in the waves. We played in the sand and chased seashells. We walked through the mountain rivers and pondered up the many stones. We watched through our son’s eyes as his world came alive and all along as ours did too. We met new people and sat in the stillness of the skies. And one of the greatest moments was finding out that we will be welcoming another son and our hearts grew grander through it all.

We tend to travel to the quiet and to the untouched. We don’t want to see a resort in site and we want a home that we can abide in and be together for the time that God has given to us in these special places. To cook, to laugh, and to slow down. To end our nights with a sunset and to wake up and start our day with His beauty and the sounds of nature.

Abide is my word for this year. The meaning that I am hanging tightly to is to dwell, to remain, to be present and to be held and kept. As I pondered in this head and heart of mine in what I wanted to take away from this trip as we began our journey there, it was to abide in it all as we stepped away from the beautiful chaos that we live in. To slow our spirits and our hearts and to abide in the very things that God has placed infront of us, in that very moment. I want to keep my eyes focused on what I don’t want to miss out on. I want to let it all sink in deep and to be present in the most intimate moments that will one day be only memories. Life is all flying by so much faster with each year gained and I know it takes intentionality to stop and enjoy it all in the midst of the ride.

It’s funny because when we take the chance and take advantage of these opportunities, God begins to restore the song in my heart when it gets weary. He reminds me of where my feet are planted and the pure beauty all around me that I feel a conviction of missing on the daily. He re-awakens my creativity and deep set desires of the heart. He restores my soul and re-ignites my fire. He strips me back to the simple and sets me back on the real and true, the humble and the necessary.

This pregnancy has come with its complications that shook us to our very core and gratefully, is fast approaching with a settledness. John started back school and we got permission on many fronts and took the leap to seek after an opportunity that we knew would leave us refreshed and with a lifetime of memories.

I remember John and I hiking in the Rockies in our beginning and passing a couple who both had young children on their backs, as we smiled and said that will be us one day. Today this is us, even with the stresses that may come with it all in traveling with the young, we want our children to see the world and humanity through God’s eyes.

Today, we love the life that we have built right here in our little home and in our little town, but we still desire to let them experience that world and the beauty that God placed all around of us. To meet the people that may look differently than us and live differently than us. To play with other children in love and joy even though there is no language understood in between. To watch sunsets come up in different hemispheres and to put toes in the sand of different oceans. To humble us to surroundings that look everything but our privileged country.

It’s inspiring to be a “loner” in a place that gets us out of our little box and brings an awakening to how little we truly are and to see how God has placed such vast beauty all around the world that looks nothing like our constant. Whether it’s missions, vacations, sabbaticals, we will say yes to these opportunities to grow us all from the inside out.

I remember flying into Thailand a few years back in the wee hours of the morning and getting on a little bus to take us to our next stop before we jumped to our next location. Mom was beginning to chat and I remember telling her to just watch… to see what this world looked like in the sleeping hours. Thats one of my most favorite parts of driving in these countries is seeing in silence how different life can be from ours, but all at the same time, how much alike we are. And that each and every one of us are HIS special creation.

Thats what we want our boys to see and to know.

Scientist say there is a different strand of DNA in those of us with a wanderlust spirit. Mama raised me with this, but I believe it runs much deeper in the strands that God created us with. Show me the world over a material item any day and you’ve touched the deepest places inside my heart.

So here is to finally processing into words what this trip was for us. This beautiful country forfeited pieces of this place to be carried in our hearts forever, as it always does. These are blessings that I will never take for grafted, no matter how near or far.

-Love, Chelsea Elizabeth