Rest, a true season of rest. Have you learned to embrace it or do you find yourself working your way through hoping you get the results or feelings of it at a later date? I don’t know about you all, but aside from being pregnant, I started to really understand the value of a true season of rest and not just taking days off of social media.
It actually started by accident or maybe it was all divine timing and I’m still processing that, but when a friend passed away last summer, it shook me pretty deep to my core and all of a sudden so many things seemed to not matter as much anymore. I wasn’t super interested in showing up or taking photos and sure that is also a sign of grief as well, but I felt like I was being prompted into a true season of rest.
In that season I learned a lot about myself, shifted my focus to trying for babies and just seemed to have a revelation that I needed to fully be present in that season of essentially doing nothing. I wasn’t posting, I was barely blogging, I just didn’t have it in me, but instead of feeling guilty about it, which let’s be real, we often do, I felt okay, I felt at peace and I felt like it was my time to slow down and embrace my season of rest.
All that said, now that I am pregnant and have since become pregnant, I’m still embracing this season and understanding true rest in a different aspect. Let’s get into 5 reasons to embrace your season of rest. Some of you might need to take one yourself.
Reasons to Embrace Your Season of Rest
Your Season of Rest Needs To Be Taken Seriously
I can do all things (which he has called me to do) through Him who strengthens me and empowers me (to fulfill His purpose — I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency; I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him who infuses with me inner strength and confident peace.) – Philippians 4:13 AMP
Rest by the worlds standard and definition looks like “a few days off of social media” or “a vacation” and while those methods of rest are valid, have you tried just doing nothing and being serious about it. It’s not to say forget your responsibilities because that isn’t wisdom, but I don’t believe people truly take rest seriously when it is a serious matter.
We live in a time where proof that you are always doing something, trumps the fact that sometimes doing nothing is actually what you need more of. In the day and age of social media it’s become more important to prove that we’re “getting to the bag” or “hustling”. It’s different if you don’t believe in God, but I know as a believer, we don’t gotta do all of those extras. Rest is Biblical, God wants us to rest, really rest though, not pretend like we are. We don’t because we still need that validation and recognition that we’re doing things when we don’t always have to be.
You’re Loved and Perfectly Whole While Resting
And by the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested (ceased) on the seventh day from all His Work which he Had done. So God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it (as His own, that is, set it apart as holy from other days), because in it He rested from all His work which He had created and done) – Genesis 2:2-3 AMP
One of the reasons we don’t rest is because we feel worthless and like we have nothing to offer when we’re not doing anything. That couldn’t be far from the truth. Embracing your season of rest is going to look different than what the world tells us it will look like. Only the world and the world system makes us feel like something is wrong with us for resting. Like we’re weak for needing rest, time off or anything that takes us away from our work. You don’t have to subscribe to that and you have to know deep down in your soul that you are still worthy even when in the down time that you need.
Please stop letting the internet and other humans guilt you into feeling bad for needing rest, but taking it. Let them burn out if that’s what they desire.
You Were Designed To Need and Take Regular Rest
He only is my rock and my salvation; My fortress and my defense, I will not be shaken or discouraged. On God my salvation and my glory rest; He is my rock of (unyielding) strength, my refuge is God. – Psalms 62:6-7 AMP
Another reason to embrace your season of rest is because we were designed to need it and take it regularly. Resting regularly means more than one time a year, more than one time a quarter. Even in your most busy seasons, you still need it. You know you need it, I bet you can even feel it; so how come you won’t take it?
If you were designed for something that means it’s a part of who you are, and it’s actually a part of your purpose. I refuse to let others talk me out of my rest, force me out of my rest, do anything to disturb that rest. I used to always be like “I’m gonna come today, or do this today”. Now I say “I’ll do my best to come today, but if not in the coming days, I’ll let you know”. I just can’t force it and to me it’s easier to provide a realistic boundary then trying to do more because I don’t want to let others down.
A Season of Rest Is Essential for Function
It is vain for you rise early, to retire late, to eat the bread of anxious labors – For He gives (blessings) to His beloved even in his sleep. Psalms 127:2 AMP
Do you believe you need to rest to function? I’m convinced people are wound up, uptight, driving angry and all the things in between because they haven’t rested. We just go go go and to think most people aren’t even getting a full 7 or 8 hours of sleep.
If you have a new baby or a puppy or things that are waking you up and breaking that sleep that’s one thing, but most people aren’t getting the rest they NEED that is essential to function. One way I taught myself to embrace a season of rest was back in college, maybe this is why my habit is so good now, I NEVER pulled all nighters. Sure we went out, sure we stayed up but when it came to studying and stuff, an all nighter never saw me. It was pointless to me. That lack of rest just to get more “studying” in when at that point you’re practically delirious, it was not essential to my focus for the actual test, so I never did it.
I realized how essential rest was for my function then, but it’s different once you’re an adult for sure. Remember there is no trophy for being the least rested. Embrace your season of rest
Rest Teaches Us To Be Mindful of Our Yes and Create Boundaries
The (boundary) lines (of the land) have fallen for me in pleasant places; Indeed my heritage is beautiful to me. Psalm 16:6
Last and certainly not least, it’s important for us to embrace our seasons of rest because it teaches us to be mindful of our yes and create healthy boundaries. I used to be a yes woman for so many reasons that ultimately burnt me out in the end.
When I was in school in North Carolina, I was a part of a really big on campus club and eventually became the President. I enjoyed the responsibility, the need to be needed and just that girl (small school, big responsibilities). It wasn’t until my senior year there that I was just over it. None of that brought me joy anymore and I just wanted to chill. I didn’t have real boundaries because I had to be here and be there and ultimately I found myself wanting to quit a lot of things.
Then I had desired so strongly with the help of a teacher who I really respected that being a personal assistant was the lifestyle for me. It’s fun when you’re young, but as I got older and got paid more, I started to hate it. I hated it mostly because there were no boundaries. You’re always needed, you’re always “being” that person and I was like, I just want to be me and not be responsible for other people in this way.
It wasn’t until I started my blog that I really began to understand boundaries and have the confidence to set them. When you create content for people and they want you to do XYZ, but pay you XYZ I began to realize I was overextending myself and didn’t have to do it. All of that to say, life’s lessons will teach you about rest and being mindful of your yes.
Some of you are still working on that and I pray you have the revelation to find your voice for your no, but this is why rest is more than just what the world tells us it is. If rest is something you’re still working on making time for, I pray you find the time for it so it doesn’t have to find the time for you.
How are you implementing rest, real rest into your life?
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