The Lord is perfecting the things that will potentially cause me trouble. He is working behind the scenes to bless me. I don’t have to “fix” things, He will do it.
Meanwhile, I need to practice “being”.
Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the LORD. Psalm 4:4-5
Stillness is not very gratifying. You can’t run from your fears by furiously pushing them out of your mind through plans and activities. You have to silence the drowning noise of media and the world. You cannot impress your friends and your enemies with your “progress”. It can be nothing more than you and God, sitting and “being” together, in a casual conversation about very little that could be considered “productive”.
The fruit God desires is character. It is being right even more than it is doing right; the doing will follow the being…We need to understand that no amount of preaching, praying or singing will do instead of being gentle, meek, long-suffering, and good. (Hannah Whitall-Smith)
I must live this life in continual death, that is, the rest that comes from a lack of striving—in the rest of someone that is up and serving at the same time. I believe that it is possible to be both doing and resting at the same time. But I also believe that some of the greatest of my “doings” have not been fruitful or life-rendering, but malevolent and destructive.
Pregnancy helps me to rest. From the outside, it seems as though I am doing nothing, yet my body is using all of its reserve strength to enable the knitting together of little bones and flesh. I don’t mind being tired and just sitting, because I know that I am being productive in my inactivity.
It is when I am not pregnant and am quite physically capable that I lose perspective and get too busy taking care of myself and everyone else. But then the baby helps me to remember again what it means just to sit and enjoy the moment. When I take long moments to stare at her as she goes about the work of exploring her world, I can think of nothing else but the delight of who she is. My worries and concerns vanish at that point and I can actually rest, not just in my body, but in my spirit.
Father, I want to rest today—even when I am vacuuming or folding clothes or running to the store. I want to be available for You to work Your fruit in me, when I am confronted with grumpiness or the frustration of people and things that don’t want to cooperate with my plans. I am so thankful that You want to spend time with me today, and I greatly desire to spend time with You. My times are in Your hands.
In the name of Jesus,
Amen.
elcome! My name is Sherry and I am a devoted Christian wife and mother to 15 homeschooled children. 
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Amen!
ReplyDeletethat's why you are having so many babies?
ReplyDeleteI am just teasing you...
But I think you must also allow you the right to rest and be unproductive what ever!
Because you are not building any baby in you but you are building young adults around you!
Take care of yourself too, you have such a huge amount of responsabilities and physical work on your hands...
I "only " has five kids. But I did get sooo tired. Not easy to allow ourselves to rest or take time just for ourselves.
I just read this article...
Think how tired one can get with two!!!!!!!!!
http://www.passionatehomemaking.com/2009/10/taking-a-weekly-planning-prayer-retreat.html
Thank you for sharing. You are such a courageous mother!!!
Keep hanging on to God, and keep looking into his lovely face. Look there, and don't even glance down. It is not our business to look around, but to fix our eyes on Jesus.
ReplyDeleteGod has been purifying this in me. My flesh draws me to 'give a quick look about me'. I begin to sink.
Rejoice in that He is doing a refining, and a great work in you. Pruning hurts, and leaves us feeling exposed and naked. The fruit of it, though is worthy. Less of us, more of Christ. Beautiful, honorable, sweet. Remember as the gardener prunes, he does not just watch from a distance. He experiences it with you, and intimately feels your pain.
"Be still and know that I am God"...(psalm 46. v.10) I thought of this today when I was cleaning up the house. There can be so much grumbling in me. There was a sticker stuck to the wood floor, and I was peeling it off, and my thoughts were not good. I was tempted to anger, and then I thought of that verse...."Be still..." There is so much in us that needs purging and cleansing. It isn't just getting things neat and tidy around us, but inside of us needs work, too. I agree with you, sometimes we need to just meditate on things without media or music or interruption. God has much to say to us when we have an ear to listen. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThis is just how I've been feeling this week. I even said to my mom, "Maybe I need to get preganant again, so I have an excuse to get some rest!" LOL. I think Nicole has it right -- we're building young people around us even when we're not growing a baby inside us! We need to be able to set limits on our lives, and *observe the Sabbath*.
ReplyDeleteI have to learn to say "No" even when I'd like to say "Yes," even when the thing would be good and helpful and full of service. I cannot keep serving church and friends, no matter how in need, if I come home unable to serve my own family because I'm so exhausted. I need to have time to pray and be renewed in between all the busy-ness.
I appreciate the concept in your article about "resting" even when we are working. I think our culture has, once more, twisted the idea of "rest" into a concept of "me-time," time that I deserve for myself. It is not that I need time to myself in order to serve my family and others, it is that I need time with God to be renewed in His service, relying on Christ's strength in me. Thanks for the insight and the reminder. I have thoroughly enjoyed your blog posts.
ReplyDelete