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Category: rest

By Posted on Posted in growth, rest 1 Comment Tagged with

Recently, I posted a status update on facebook that read:

The human race would be extinct if women had any idea how demanding motherhood would be.

My job as a mother is serious business. Not for the faint-hearted, for sure!  I wouldn’t trade it for anything… except maybe for a week in a tropical paradise… then I would want my demanding life right back again.

I’ve shared that the Lord has been teaching me how to rest in the midst of my demanding life. Clearly, sleep is helpful. I try to get 7 hours each night. Time alone with Him is necessary too… so my soul can rest. Then there’s my current fling with Amish fiction. My mind needs the rest from homeschool pre-algebra and the mental gymnastics required to outwit my 16 month old.

Recently, the Lord showed me that I need more help to rest my body. I’ve had two massages in the past few weeks. Amazing. Also enlightening.

I have major kinks and knots in my neck and shoulders! The stress of life and motherhood have taken their toll on me. I am carrying around tension in my body, and I have decided that this tension is no longer welcome. Of course, these knots will not budge without skilled hands… and not without pressure.

Now, there’s a word that keeps resurfacing in my life. Pressure. I am ever-aware that God allows pressure to build in my life so that I will keep running to Him.  So that, one day, I might never leave His side!

While laying on the massage table today, I gladly welcomed the painful pressure necessary to work the knots out of my shoulder muscles.  Welcoming pain… did I really say that?

Suddenly, I became aware that the pressure God permits in my life is also working out some of the knots in my heart. He is loosening up my heart muscles so that I can relax and trust Him more. The knots of fear, bitterness, and desire for control are kneaded out as I allow His pressure to work in my life.

Maybe I can learn to welcome the pressure and pain He permits… as easily as I welcomed the heavy hands of massage today. Hmmmm…. I am definitely moving in that direction. Lead me, Lord.

By Posted on Posted in healing, rest, Uncategorized 1 Comment

I can’t believe that in the past 30 days, I have been sick 3 times. That’s more than the last year and half combined.  I really NEVER get sick!!

I know what this is about. It’s about a four-letter word that I have neglected. It’s something that I put last on the priority list. Something that I think I can do without.

R-E-S-T.

In the middle of my stomach-flu stupor, I was reminded by my sweet-Colorado-blogging-homeschooling friend Gail… rest is SO important. She asked this question on her blog:

Have you learned what brings you rest?

I need rest!! I need to schedule time to be home alone for an hour or two at least once a week. That is the thing that re-energizes me the most. I also need to go to bed early a couple of times a week and let my hubby bring the baby to me for the last 11:00 pm feeding instead of waiting up. I need to decide at 10:00 am if a nap is on the schedule for the day… and make it happen.

If I don’t… well, we all know what will happen. I don’t want to go there again!! Lord, teach me to rest. I need to learn to rest. I need to learn how to make time to rest.

By Posted on Posted in intimacy with God, peace, rest 1 Comment

“Be still and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10

“The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.” Exodus 14:14

“Jesus got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, ‘Quiet! Be still!’ Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.” Mark 4:39

“You may not see or feel the inner workings of His silent power, but rest assured it is always mightily at work. And it will work for you, if you will only quiet your spirit enough to be carried along by the current of its power.” –Hannah Whitall Smith

Carry me, Lord.