I inadvertently guffaw at the word “Rest” as we come out of a week’s siege of stomach flu that has left a baby wide awake in dark hours and diapers of diseased-slug diarrhea piling up next to the changing table. “Rest” has been measured in teaspoons of sleep sipped between larger cups of coffee and spaghetti plates of frayed nerves and double servings of life that pushes forward with an impatience unable to wait in line after “Rest.”
I’m grateful that “Rest”, to be effective, can be a pause and doesn’t have to be a constant. I’m grateful that “Rest” can come in as the clean-up crew and deal with the piles of vomited sheets and unopened mail and unchecked to-do items.
Even if I can’t see it now, these exhausting days of children hanging off of my knees and words and love will ease into days of rest when I can imagine reading a book again. When I can imagine going to bed without the fear of waking up to gagging sounds on the monitor. When I can reflect on these days that slip by quicker than that round of diarrhea and think, “Those, those were great days.”
Rest does that for us. It realigns our minds, hearts, and hands so that we can think more clearly, love more strongly, and serve more willingly. The Rest may only come in snatches when I lay my hand on a slippery, chubby baby belly and my head on the edge of the diaper changing table and breathe deep the Spirit of grace to make it through the next minute. But Rest is so powerful that even taken in small doses, it packs a mighty punch.
These five minutes of writing have been my rest for today, and I’m grateful, as I am weekly, for Lisa Jo Baker’s inspiring prompt from Five Minute Fridays.
Hi Beth!
I love this! Your photography is beautiful. The days are exhausting. My 3 are now 15, 6 and 5 years. Looking back, I wonder why I wanted them to grow up so fast? A wise woman once said to me, “The days are long, but the years are short.” I have adopted that phrase, reminding myself of it often.
Blessings to you, my fellow pilgrim on this journey of mamahood 🙂
Joy
Beth,
Those days of rest for which you long (when monitors aren’t required and you may even not worry about getting the mail at all that day) are coming. You will look back and not remember the nitty-gritty diaper pail tales, but will be content to rest in the sweet snippets of memories cherished as a younger mom with wee ones afoot.
Blessings from my blog!
Beth, this is absolutely real and beautiful! And what a lovely bloggy place you have here.
I especially loved this: Rest does that for us. It realigns our minds, hearts, and hands so that we can think more clearly, love more strongly, and serve more willingly. The Rest may only come in snatches…
I love the idea of rest coming in small doses — isn’t that true as a mama? I, too, have experienced that deep soul refreshing in God’s touch just in the moment it takes to lay my head down on the changing table or sweep my hand across my little girls’ cheeks. How good that we can rest when the world just keeps right on moving and the puke keeps right on coming, if we receive the good of His filling.
Bless you as you recover with your sweet ones. I’m so happy to have met you through FMF today!
Im so blessed I found your blog, this post really helped me.
ooooh. I hope next week is better and that you can manage some real rest. When our little ones get sick it is SO hard to take care of ourselves. There will be time for rest.