Sometimes a break is good.
I’ve heard it said… when you don’t know what to do… do nothing.
Of course, nothing is relative. The nothing I’m talking about is the pounding of keys. The spilling of words onto screen.
The laundry in my mind, a jumbled pile of whites, darks, colors.
A time to stop. And sort.
so on the seventh day He rested.
Not because He needed it, but to show us how to do it. Modeling for us, the determined workaholic, task-a-holic, chore-a-holic children of His. Demonstrating growth ~ through stillness.
Babies. They go through some of their most intense periods of growth… while they are sleeping. Growing, wears them completely out. And, they sleep. Smart little things.
We, sage grown-ups, on the other hand, plow through our exhaustion. Determined to get. it. done. Whatever it is. Knowing full well, that it is never really done anyway. Define insanity. Over and over and over again, we press on through weariness, burning eyes, blurred emotions, discombobulated thoughts. We press on… growing more and more wasted in our own skin. And, nothing changes. Clarity does not arrive at our doorstep. Peace does not show up. At the end of our endless tasks… the rest does not appear. Only more tasks. Insane.
He showed us how to put. it. down.
Rest.
A conscious decision to cease movement and tasks. It does not come naturally to us. Today’s people. There are endless distractions. We can easily fill in our own blanks with thing after thing after thing.
Then, one day, eyes open… and out of the cartoonish blur of fists, feet, frantic motion… flies a worn soul. Exhausted.
This is not His plan for us.
He knew we would need it. Not sometimes. But, every week.
so on the seventh day He rested.
He knew we would need this time to recharge, sort thoughts, soothe the soul. Just plain sleep.
Strangely, I find this practice of rest… requires practice.
Learning how to rest. Baby steps… cues for this mama of 6.
R inger off. (on ALL devices. Just 1 hour. Then, build up time from there. To 1 day.)
E ngage with the kids. The spouse. The family. The friends. Just BE. In each other’s company.
S leep. Whenever the chance arrises and the eyes long for it. (even if a cat nap is all that can be achieved)
T ake a deep breath. Hold it. Breathe out. Repeat. Look around. All you see now is all that is real. Right now.
Now, I am off to rest… as He demonstrated and prescribed.
I pray rest for you. Rest.
Genesis 2:2
By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
“Can you play with me now?”, asked my youngest just the other day for the fifth time. “Not quite yet”, I replied, ” I have one more load of laundry left and then I ‘have’ to chop some veggies to get ready for dinner. After that, it’s just you and me-I promised!” Sad face looking at me…I ran to get the laundry- hoping she could see that I was hurrying and really did want to play. On the way upstairs, I was distracted by the messy bathroom, the litter box that needed attention, and a pile of mail that hadn’t been sorted. Needless to say, when my amazingly patient daughter asked me to play a half hour later, I hadn’t completed my “to do” list and made another excuse to her about “being there in just a minute”. When I did finally go to play, she said she found another game that only needed one person. Lesson learned by me! Thank you for this line that reminds me that “it is never really done anyway”. There will always be one more thing to do…but there will never be this moment again with my daughter. Thank you for my new mantra!
Oh Heidi, how many times have I said, “in just a minute…” and the minute turns into never. There are too many distractions, but really all we have is now. You are such an amazing mama! Here’s to embracing NOW, my dear friend.