A few days ago, I had the privilege of watching two doves sitting on a fence and in my neighbor’s birdbath. They were interesting to watch because they didn’t act like many of the other birds who were similar in size. If you watched the sparrows, robins or blue jays, their movements were pretty spastic. They were always on the move and didn’t stay still for very long. The doves were quite the opposite. They settled down and didn’t move; they didn’t even coo. As I sat there doing my devotional, my eyes constantly gravitated to watching the doves. The wind howled around them and ruffled their feathers but they didn’t move from their perches. The other birds chatted amongst themselves, squirrels ran to and fro in their funny ways, and the leaves fell down around the doves, yet the doves remained quiet and unmoving.
What if we, as Christians, were more like those doves? We would be able to sit still in moments of complete chaos and rest peacefully in our Savior. We could put the world on pause and focus our attention on God for a while. Not only would that time be refreshing but when we resumed our busy lives we could go about it with the kind of peace that only God can provide (John 14:27 NIV). Even when the winds blow and troubles appear in our lives, we can handle it better because we can truly rest knowing that God has us in the palm of His hand.
Contrast our lives being like the doves and other lives being like the squirrels. Squirrels are spastic and always running from one place to another, only to go back to the first place again. That’s how I feel many of us live our lives, always busy, always stressed, and always in chaos. To further explain this chaos, I’ve come up with the following analogy —
Picture a bunch of squirrels and acorns being tossed around in a Yugo with one squirrel running the brake pedal, one squirrel running the gas pedal, and three squirrels are trying to steer. Meanwhile, one squirrel is in the passenger seat trying to navigate with a takeout menu he thinks is a map and another squirrel is hanging out the window trying to direct traffic away from the Yugo. There’s a whole bunch of squirrels hanging their heads out the backseat windows with their tongues flapping in the breeze and the pièce de résistance is the squirrel on top of the car with a flashlight, pretending to be a police light and siren.
Doesn’t that just about sum up many of our lives? It does mine right now!
However, if Christians acted like doves in a world of squirrels, those squirrels would notice something different about us. Maybe those squirrels, or unbelievers, wouldn’t understand why we were able to have peace during our rough times and would want to know why. Then we could share the wonderful news of our Savior!
This doesn’t mean we won’t have hard times that stress us out, because I know I can count times where stress has gotten the better of me. We all have areas where it’s easier to trust God than others. Some worry about safety when traveling and Covid doesn’t bother them. Maybe Covid bothers others but traveling to the roughest section of a city doesn’t. Each of us have our areas. But what if we relied on God more and us less? We would receive His peace and have fewer stress moments in our lives, which ultimately would give us more happiness and peace.
Evaluate yourself as I will be evaluating myself. Are you a spastic squirrel or a peaceful dove when it comes to things in life like health, bills, family, etc.? When you find yourself in those squirrels moments recite this verse to yourself over and over again,
“Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” ( Matthew 6:26 NIV)
Let me answer the question posed in the verse above. Yes! Everyone is more valuable than the birds and God will take care of you if you let Him. Be a dove resting in God’s peace for He will watch over you and guide you through the storms of life and help you through every single time.
Keeping the perspective,
Lauren
You. Are. Beautiful. 
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