Five-Minute Fridays - Rest

My alarm jangled like it always does, at 5am.  As I turned it off and rolled over to sink back into sleep, this thought flitted through my exhausted brain, “Maybe Lisa-Jo will pick REST for Five Minute Fridays today because I could definitely write about that.”

Then I proceeded to sleep for three more hours!

My girls were already giggling in their beds as I made my way to the kitchen for my necessary coffee, which I had to heat up because the pot my husband made had long since gone cold.  I read some things online and when my brain was finally awake enough, I clicked over to Lisa-Jo’s. 

And read that today’s prompt is: Rest. 

I smiled, laughed, and started to write.

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 Last Saturday night we walked around the house re-setting our clocks.  It was time to Spring Forward.  After a long weekend of sleepovers and late-night teen birthday parties, every one of us was ready right then at 8:00pm to go to bed.  So we told ourselves it was already 9, set the clocks ahead and went to sleep.

After a long weekend of sleepovers, late-night teen birthday parties and losing an hour on Saturday night, I was already less than rested as the week began.  I still kept getting up at 5am for my usual gym time, but every night my body wouldn’t relax until after 11pm. 

On Wednesday afternoon the girls and I were reading outside enjoying the sunny weather, but my eyes refused to stay open.  I finally said, “Girls, I need to just close my eyes.  Why don’t you go play for a while?”  And I proceeded to nap for 30 minutes right there in a camp chair on my driveway.

Last night during Bible study with the college students, who come over every Thursday, I was literally falling asleep, trying desperately to keep my brain engaged in the saga of David and Joab and Asahel.  It wasn’t working.   I finally had to get up, splash some water on my face and eat a cookie before I could rejoin the conversation.

Resting even when I need to often can make me feel lazy, like I am perched on a slippery slope and taking this time to rest will be the first in a long line of actions that will leave me sleeping in til noon everyday, neglecting my children, and becoming terribly unproductive and useless.

I am not listening to that voice today!

Appropriate rest is a gift, as it says here in the second part of Psalm 127:2, “…he grants sleep to those he loves.”

So instead of berating myself, I am thanking Him for the extra rest this morning.

What are you thankful for today?  I would love to hear from you!

Do you struggle with that negative voice in your head too?  My friend, Elizabeth Anne, wrote a beautiful post this morning about this very thing.  It was exactly what I needed to read this morning.