Day 23: Rewarding Rest

In this season of my life, I have been finding that my rest is often not restoring or refreshing. This lead me to choose rewarding rest as an intentional focus for this year. I have had to rethink what I viewed as rest and try to change ingrained habits. I will say that this is definitely going to be an ongoing process as it has not been the most successful of my goals!

My previous view of rest was mostly sitting and doing as little as possible, usually in front of the TV or another screen. This was partly due to the sheer exhaustion I live with most days from a daughter who has never slept well. Tiredness does not lend itself to reading, crafting or anything requiring an active mind. This type of rest only does so much in recharging my batteries though. I wrote about increasing my creative time over this year in yesterday’s post (read it here). This has helped in my rest goals as well. Using some of my evenings in creating gifts or working on a project has brought rest of a different form. I still battle the tiredness though, which makes it more difficult to make more positive choices. 

I don’t really have the answers on how to change this right now. I remind myself that this is a season and it won’t last forever. In the meantime, I will strive to switch off the TV more and find something else to read or create. I will take opportunities to get out into nature and appreciate the beauty of God’s creation. I will attempt to get out for walks more often.

My quest for rest has peaked my interest in Scriptures that talk about receiving rest from God. There are so many. I shared one of my favourite passages here. I still have a long way to go in processing what is meant in these Scriptures and how I can apply it to my life. One of the main lessons that I am chewing on at the moment is not relying on how I’m feeling to be the control in how I respond or the choices I make. I am sure that true rest is less to do with what I feel physically or even mentally and more to do with the state of my spirit. Jesus grew weary in His human body but drew on His relationship with His Father as the source of strength and peace. Now to apply that everyday!!

How do you rest? What restores you?