Hey, mommies!
In all seriousness, those to-do lists never reach an end, our little sweethearts are rarely helpful for extended periods of time, and our husbands task lists and ours often counteract each other. Well-intentioned plans go awry, and we so frequently find ourselves overstretched and overcommitted with never enough sleep (or caffeine!) in the world.
Or maybe that's just at my house?
This summer seems particularly crazy, which is ironic, considering the summer study we're about to begin at Tuesdays@Crossroads (Breathe: Making Room for Sabbath, by Pricilla Shirer). I've used my brief and infrequent quiet times of the past few days to look ahead, and I found a marvelous truth, a desperately needed truth as I've felt guilty about all the times I have to say, "no."
I feel like I spend most of my time telling people, "no."
I say "no" to many activities, to many ministries, to putting my kids in this or that, to eating out all the time, to sleeping in, to putting off dishes and laundry, to buying things, to spend money fixing up a house we are (hopefully!) leaving soon...and I feel terribly guilty about it.
"All the other moms" go to these things, and "we need hands for" so many incredible and wonderful ministries, and "it's so good for kids" to be involved in a variety of activities, and eating out (again!) would be so much easier, and I'm so tired, and I swear I've washed that exactly shirt or dish thirty times in the last week, and I just want my house to be pretty...and so it goes. Entertainment, social media, and my pride all make me feel like I ought to be able to juggle all those things--as well as my one and two year old boys.
But Pricilla Shirer pointed out that after God created the universe, and saw that it was good, there yet remained one thing to do.
God rested. GOD. Rested.
In a sense, there was yet another act of creation on that seventh day--God created a sort of pinnacle to creation--a completing act. He created the Sabbath, and rest.
Rest isn't just a black hole--it's not the absence of something that ought to be or usually is. Rest, as Scripture words it, is (as a Jewish scholar Shirer quotes says,) "something real and intrinsically positive...it took a special act of creation to bring [rest] into being, that the universe would be incomplete without it. 'What was created on the seventh day? Tranquility, serenity, peace and repose.'"
The traditional viewpoint of God resting on the seventh day is because He finished creating. But this premise is slightly different--it holds that one more act of creation took place, the introduction of REST. Thought-provoking, isn't it?
This opens up a whole new line of thought for the busy, modern-day mommy. Resting isn't me failing to do something--it's me actively doing something in imitation of God.
REST HONORS GOD.
Can I hear an "amen"!?
And it gets better.
Like the children of Israel who were told to take a day off of gathering manna and quail, we are called to TRUST GOD to provide for us--not trust in our own strength. When I actively rest in obedience to God, I'm also forced to trust Him. This puts a new light on rest, doesn't it? And we're not talking about a legalistic, certain day-of-the-week sabbath, nor, of course, am I saying you should shirk and stop doing everything (oh, how we humans love to run to extremes!). But measured, intentional, positive rest...that's a theological concept I can get behind!
I wish I could go into more detail about the study. I highly recommend joining the study and hearing where Pricilla goes with this (It's never too late to join)! But for now, I want to encourage other frazzled mommies that it's okay to say no to things. It's ok to take a break when you can. And it's so important to rest. This looks different in different seasons and for different people--but don't swallow the steaming-hot lie that we are served up every day by the devil.
We do NOT have to do it all, be it all, and go-go-go.
We are allowed--no, CALLED--to stop.
Rest.
Say no.
Trust God.
Hallelujah!
You know how on some Saturdays, you attack the day with an early start, the kids sleep in for once and allow you to accomplish a ton and when they wake up they are super-helpful and in a great mood, your husband is also in a task-completion kind of mood and by lunch time you finish all your to-do list so that you can spend the rest of the day just enjoying your family and doing fun stuff? Those days finish with sweet bedtime routines, clothes and breakfast plans laid out for Sunday morning, which allows everyone to sleep long and soundly, waking in plenty of time to leave the house in a timely fashion for church and you come to the service with a peaceful heart, ready to worship.
Yeah, me neither. Especially the part about kids sleeping in...do some kids actually do that?
 |
| Helpful Baby. |
Or maybe that's just at my house?
This summer seems particularly crazy, which is ironic, considering the summer study we're about to begin at Tuesdays@Crossroads (Breathe: Making Room for Sabbath, by Pricilla Shirer). I've used my brief and infrequent quiet times of the past few days to look ahead, and I found a marvelous truth, a desperately needed truth as I've felt guilty about all the times I have to say, "no."
I feel like I spend most of my time telling people, "no."
I say "no" to many activities, to many ministries, to putting my kids in this or that, to eating out all the time, to sleeping in, to putting off dishes and laundry, to buying things, to spend money fixing up a house we are (hopefully!) leaving soon...and I feel terribly guilty about it.
"All the other moms" go to these things, and "we need hands for" so many incredible and wonderful ministries, and "it's so good for kids" to be involved in a variety of activities, and eating out (again!) would be so much easier, and I'm so tired, and I swear I've washed that exactly shirt or dish thirty times in the last week, and I just want my house to be pretty...and so it goes. Entertainment, social media, and my pride all make me feel like I ought to be able to juggle all those things--as well as my one and two year old boys.
But Pricilla Shirer pointed out that after God created the universe, and saw that it was good, there yet remained one thing to do.
"By the seventh day God completed His work that He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work that He had done." (Genesis 2:2)
God rested. GOD. Rested.
In a sense, there was yet another act of creation on that seventh day--God created a sort of pinnacle to creation--a completing act. He created the Sabbath, and rest.
Rest isn't just a black hole--it's not the absence of something that ought to be or usually is. Rest, as Scripture words it, is (as a Jewish scholar Shirer quotes says,) "something real and intrinsically positive...it took a special act of creation to bring [rest] into being, that the universe would be incomplete without it. 'What was created on the seventh day? Tranquility, serenity, peace and repose.'"
The traditional viewpoint of God resting on the seventh day is because He finished creating. But this premise is slightly different--it holds that one more act of creation took place, the introduction of REST. Thought-provoking, isn't it?
This opens up a whole new line of thought for the busy, modern-day mommy. Resting isn't me failing to do something--it's me actively doing something in imitation of God.
REST HONORS GOD.
Can I hear an "amen"!?
And it gets better.
Like the children of Israel who were told to take a day off of gathering manna and quail, we are called to TRUST GOD to provide for us--not trust in our own strength. When I actively rest in obedience to God, I'm also forced to trust Him. This puts a new light on rest, doesn't it? And we're not talking about a legalistic, certain day-of-the-week sabbath, nor, of course, am I saying you should shirk and stop doing everything (oh, how we humans love to run to extremes!). But measured, intentional, positive rest...that's a theological concept I can get behind!
I wish I could go into more detail about the study. I highly recommend joining the study and hearing where Pricilla goes with this (It's never too late to join)! But for now, I want to encourage other frazzled mommies that it's okay to say no to things. It's ok to take a break when you can. And it's so important to rest. This looks different in different seasons and for different people--but don't swallow the steaming-hot lie that we are served up every day by the devil.
We do NOT have to do it all, be it all, and go-go-go.
We are allowed--no, CALLED--to stop.
Rest.
Say no.
Trust God.
Hallelujah!
 |
| Sleeping on the plane, flying home from my sis-in-law's wedding. |
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