Do you ever wonder when moms get a real break?  A real day off  I mean, not the weekend, where everyone has free time except mom, who still cooks and does dishes and nags everyone to pick up their stuff.  A day when we aren’t expected to do ANYTHING but relax.  No, being sick does NOT count–trust me on that one.  I mean real rest.

I’ve been thinking about rest a lot the past few weeks.  How important it is.  It’s actually my cat, Spookers’,  fault.  He takes such great pleasure in sleeping.  Every time I walk through the bedroom, he calls to me and purrs.  Keep in mind, he’s settled solidly in the center of my bed, curled up in a cute, black fuzzy ball, and looking ever so soft and cuddly.  He actually has come-hither eyes.  On occasion, his buddy Jack joins him (they are only friends at nap time, at all other times he is the object of Jack’s torment).  Anyway, his goal is to get me to lie down with him.  He knows once I do, and hear his lulling purrs, I will sleep.  He does the same thing if I’m up too late.  He finds wherever I am in the house, and meows at me, urging me to follow him to the bedroom where I will succumb to his sleepy spell and finally go to bed.  This is where, as far as he’s concerned, I should be in the first place.

Rest is important.  Perhaps not as important to us humans as it is to the kitty world—they have different goals (although, I think they might have the right idea).  Isn’t rest fleeting?  You can get some good sleep, but by the next evening, you are all tired out again.  Our need for rest never goes away, no matter how much tea we drink!  The Bible mentions rest more times than I can count.  Often it’s an order–God rested and He wants us to as well.  Usually the meaning the word holds is trust; however, there are plenty of verses that comfort us in our exhaustion and encourage our hearts to know that God is sufficient for our needs, that we can put our cares on Him and find rest in Him.  I found the following to be of particular comfort:

Psalm 62: 5-6  Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.  He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.

Find rest, O my soul.  Sounds lovely doesn’t it?  I love knowing that whatever my schedule, illness, trial, what have you, I can find true rest in Him.