Ask God to help you see the value of getting quiet before Him.

I Was Just Thinking I have seen You in the sanctuary, to see Your power and Your glory. PSALM 63:2 Where is your place to ponder? Maybe it's a certain chair in a quiet corner of your home. Maybe it's the back deck at sunrise or under the porch light after dark, with only the rhythmic hum of the crickets to disrupt your quiet. Maybe it's a nearby creek or a nice place to walk or jog. Maybe it's a garage workshop or a cozy cafe. Or maybe it's nowhere. Maybe you and a "place to ponder" aren't seen together in the same spot very often. Over the years when I come home from work or when Barbara comes home from her many errands, we take one another by the hand after dinner and sneak out for a walk. (With six kids you have to be a sneak sometimes. We did this so many times, they knew where to find us!) We'll stroll through our garden beds, looking at what's blooming at certain seasons of the year. The garden is hardly professional—it's in constant need of repair and weeding. In fact, one of the problems with our place to ponder is that we often find ourselves pondering the work that needs doing out there. But most important, it's simply our time away from the needs of other people. You know, the phone and email and all the other interruptions. We may share something we've been thinking about. We may dial up a sweet memory. We may stop and pray, or we may just walk along glad to be at home together. If there's one reason why marriages wither under the pressures and demands of daily life, it may be the lack of having regular times and places where we deliberately go to pray, share and regain perspective. It may be because we're always puttering and planning and doing and moving from one place to the next but never stopping . . . and listening . . . and recharging . . . and pondering. Together. DISCUSS If you don't have a "place to ponder," where could it be? How could you make a habit of going there?