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Rest

Writer's picture: Danielle CrawfordDanielle Crawford


REST

I used think “rest” meant to sleep or to lay on the couch all day. I knew rest was important for health, seeing as God tells us in His word to rest quite often, but I wasn’t on board with this type of rest. Don’t get me wrong, there totally are times where my butt doesn’t leave the couch and Netflix has asked me if I was still watching about 30 times, but that type of rest isn’t what I’m talking about. I’m talking about rest for the soul. The life-giving kind of rest.

This type of rest looks different for everyone. In my opinion, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to rest, but I do think we all share similar stressors that we need relief from in order to feel rested in our souls.

In Psalm 23, David says “He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside quiet waters, He refreshes my soul.” Wait…He MAKES me lie down? So what you’re saying David, is that rest is imperative?

In Exodus God says, “Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest.” Ok God, even during the busy season at work when I need to get things done for the week?

In Matthew, Jesus says “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

Do you see where I’m going with this? Rest is mentioned so many times in the bible, but yet we seem to discount it and think it’s only meant for the over worked. Sometimes we think rest is only for lazy people. But it is meant for all of us, no matter where we fall on the lazy/worker-bee spectrum.

How do we know the type of rest we need? The first step is to take a step back and evaluate your life. What in your life causes you stress? What takes up most of your emotional and physical energy? Those are the things you need rest from.

For me, one of the things that caused me the most stress was social media. Coming from a blogger who makes her presence known all day every day on social media, it can be hard to believe that the thing I love to do brings me stress. Stress to be sure to post enough to keep people interested, but not enough to be annoying. Stress to keep up with what everyone else is doing. Stress coming from FOMO and missing out on fun activities my friends are doing. The stress of comparing my life with others’ lives. All of those things may sound petty to you( if you have a super healthy relationship with social media) but in the interest of being honest, these things cause me a great deal of stress and anxiety. So one form of rest for me is taking a break from social media. Breaking the social media addiction is HARD at first but so healing once you get over the hump and ultimate feelings of FOMO! Guess what? Life goes on without social media. Your life goes on and everyone else’s lives will go on. The world will not fall apart if you don’t know exactly what everyone is doing every day! Taking a break from my phone was one of the single most healing things I’ve ever done. Feel like you might be slightly addicted to social media? Try deleting the apps from your phone and just taking a week or 2 to spend with Jesus instead of with the rest of the world. He will teach you things during this time, I promise. The things I learned and the relationship that was fortified through leaning on Him when I felt like I needed to be on social media was so worth it.

Another thing that can cause you stress is mess and clutter. It sounds counter productive to say that cleaning and de-cluttering will give you rest, but it will! Personally, when my house is in disarray I am anything but peaceful. I can try to relax, but the daunting tasks in front of me like the laundry that practically just lives on my couch, taunt me until I can’t take it anymore! When my house is freshly cleaned, I feel the most at peace. To keep this peace up requires daily discipline of picking up, doing a load of laundry a day, and never having dirty dishes in the sink. Another thing to do is to tackle cluttered areas of the house whether it’s your end table stacked with books, or a linen closet that you know is a mess behind the closed door. Take it one thing at a time, and I promise when you are done you will be able to sit back and enjoy your beautiful home in a new light. I recommend watching “Tidying Up” on Netflix to see the Marie Kondo method of de-cluttering. I haven’t tackled every space in my home, but the main living area is where I spend most of my time and when it is clean, I am at rest.

 

After work commitments. TOTAL stressor for me. Whether the commitment is something I totally love to do, or something I dread going to, when I’m in a time of stress I eliminate them as much as possible. If it is not crucial for my health to go to it, I’m not going. There’s nothing more satisfying for me than driving home from work to stay there for the rest of the night. Back in my heyday I would have loved to fill up my social calendar with events every night of the week and go go go! But as an adult who is, let’s face it, not getting any younger, these after work commitments are tiring me out and causing more stress! So if you find yourself stressed and tired, try cutting back on weekly commitments and spend more time at home.

My mother-in-law has always told me this analogy and I absolutely love it! We are all pies. And each slice of that pie is our time and energy. One slice goes to the Lord and the time and energy you spend pouring into your relationship with Him. One piece of pie should be for your husband. One for your children. One for your family. One for your friends. The things that are most important to you will have the bigger slices. I know personally, the biggest slice of my pie goes to Jesus…well at least that’s what should be my biggest slice. Is it always? No. But is it what Jesus asks of us? Yes. Jesus says in Matthew 22, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”‘ If that is what Jesus himself says to do, well I’m going to need to reserve a lot of my pie for Him. My 2nd biggest slice is reserved for my husband. I should be using most of my physical and mental energy being a good wife and working at my relationship. Marriage is so sacred and we were brought together by the Lord. Stewarding that relationship and nurturing it to it’s absolute fullness definitely requires a large piece of my pie. Next comes my family, then my friends, and then the smallest piece of the pie is anything else (job, social commitments). Sometimes we find ourselves trying to make the friend piece of the pie bigger than any other piece. When I find myself doing that and putting way too much time and energy into relationships other than God and my spouse, I feel totally off balance. I feel tired and stressed. Keeping up those relationships that are not as secure as a husband or family takes work because it’s not guaranteed they will always be there. I find myself using so much energy to keep friendships alive and the big slices of my pie start to shrink! So rest, friend. Rest in Jesus. Rest in the arms of your spouse. Rest in your home. Rest rest rest. And when you start to feel stressed, remember the pie analogy and ask yourself if your slices are the right portions.

I finally reached a breaking point on January 4th 2019 and I disconnected. I deleted all social media, got out of every group text, cancelled all weekly commitments and spent time alone. Some have said that I pull away when things get hard…but had I taken the time to rest throughout the months leading up to it, I wouldn’t have had such a mental breakdown. I wouldn’t have felt at the end of my rope. I wouldn’t have burnt out so quickly. So I beg you friend, take time for yourself and truly rest and watch how the Lord restores you. Watch how he illuminates the things in your life that are of utmost importance. Watch what he does when you take time to quiet the nose and truly listen. If you will do this and commit to taking a moment of rest, He will show up and He will refill your cup. I promise.



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