Hey everyone, I'm Dr. Allison. Today's scripture offers us a wiser way of being human as we step into the day.

This is our eighth week together, which means we've just completed two full months of anchoring ourselves in the morning.

I want to pause and say here right at the top, I found this

practice incredibly rewarding. I look forward to researching and revising and recording, and this

whole project has just been an incredible encouragement to me. I've found it to be so grounding,

anchoring me back to what's true and what matters most before the worries and stressors of the

week can start pulling me away. And I've loved hearing from you truly every time you share that

one comment or note, this helped or this met me or I listened in the car and it was exactly

what I needed to hear. It reminds me we're doing something that matters. We're building a

steady place inside our own souls, a place to stay connected with God's spirit and with each other.

So today, we're going to return to a Psalm. Many of us have learned early on, and if you've heard it

a hundred times, let it be new again. Sometimes familiar words

are the ones that reach us when our hearts are tired. Today's reading is Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd.

I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He

refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name's sake. Even though I walk

through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil. For you are with me. Your rod and your staff,

they comfort me. You prepare a table before me

in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely your goodness

and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord

forever. Notice that phrase, he makes me lie down.

Not he suggests, not he offers a productivity hack, he makes me lie down. Which is a tender way

of saying, there are times you and I will not choose rest on our own. We'll keep going.

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