Hey, hey sisters, welcome back to another episode here on the intentional mom life with jesus podcast, I'm your host, Sasha star Robertson and today we are talking all about rest, it has been a very reoccurring theme in myself, a lot of my clients, a lot of other conversations that I've been having, so I just want to take a little bit of time to dig into the topic of rest.
Today, God gave me this really nifty acronym, we're going to go through just to talk about rest what it looks like and then some scriptures and more. Are you overwhelmed by your never ending to do list?
Are you tired of your schedule running you do you struggle to find balance or harmony between mom life and everything else that you have on your heart and on your plate, if you're here, you're likely a busy mama wearing multiple hats, the most important of which being child of God and mom, simultaneously, you desire to live more intentionally striving to be a good steward of all the gifts that God has given you and you want more productively peaceful days,
Welcome come to the intentional mom life with jesus podcast, I'm your host, Sasha star Robertson, jesus freak.
Mom, blessed by adoption wife wonder luster and your intentional living and biblical mindset coach on this podcast, you will find abundant motherhood solutions that will set you free from the chaos overwhelmed that never ending to do list and help you create a schedule that actually works for you and your family, my mission is to help busy mamas, just like you establish faithful foundations live from purposeful priorities and master your motherhood mindset.
If you're here, you're ready to say yes to intentional, productive and peaceful days in jesus, so grab your cold group and your planner or strap those kiddos into the car seat and let's jump into today's alright, alright, so this idea of rest, I think it's very, very timely.
I've had this on my notes to do a podcast episode about this for some time because I've known since february that God was calling me into a transition at the beginning of september end of august and that this later half of the year was going to be a season of rest resting in him focusing on family being home more, not showing up for doing so much in my business and community and just a turning in and I think it's really timely, I think it's coming up for a lot of people because it's wintertime.
I'm sitting here looking out the window, watching the snow just come down right now and it's so beautiful and if you go outside, it's actually very, very quiet when it is snowing outside because the fluffy nous of the snow has a tendency to just absorb the sound when you go walk in the snow, you can think about every step you take, you can hear that snow crunching under your feet and I don't know about you guys, but that gives me a feeling of rest,
that gives me a feeling of peace and I think it's really clear that when we're thinking about winter in the earth, it's a season for the earth to rest. It's the opposite of the summer season. And really almost a lot of the other seasons right? Spring is a season where everything is budding and starting to grow, it's a huge season of growth and then summer is just luscious with greenery all around and all the plants are at their peak.
You know vegetables are growing and being able to be harvested at times and flowers are everywhere that you look and grass is green and having to be mode all the time. That's when our plants and trees and things like that have a majority of their growth season is in the summer when it's sunny and then in the fall everything kind of starts to die down, It starts to to turn back in, it starts its seasonal retreat back into itself.
I love this idea of a lot of the trees around or different plants like um like raspberries for example, they'll have like a sap or a syrup or an internal kind of fluid that when winter comes they retreat, they suck all of that liquid in the trees down into their roots to to hide them for the winter season. And so this is a season for the earth to rest. So it's in no way surprising to me that many people are feeling this internal desire, this call or this push into a season of rest.
Okay, so rest, what is rest? I think typically when we think of the idea of rest, mostly we think of sleeping right, Sleeping is a really amazing form of rest. It's a way that our body has an opportunity to restore, to cleanse to detox, to go back to a baseline. But I love how God right from the beginning, he talks about rest and genesis 22 through three, he says, and on the seventh day, God finished his work that he had done and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done.
So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it, God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. I was listening to a podcast a few months ago, I think it was with Jefferson Beth key and maybe his wife or somebody else. But he brought up this really interesting perspective tied to this verse and this idea of rest. When you look at scripture, God created the earth um in all of creation in six days and then rested on the seventh.
So God rested on his seventh day in terms of what we're looking at and how creation was mapped out and spoken into existence, but it was on the sixth day that he created humans that he created Adam and Eve. So it was actually arguably their first day, like day one, you know, he says it was evening and the morning, that was the first day. And so it was Adam and Eve's first day that they rested.
And so I love this perspective when we're talking about the sabbath, how how Adam and Eve and humans actually rested and then began their work, then began to go out and multiply and subdue the earth and so on and so forth. And so I think that is a really thought provoking and thought shifting idea to show up and work from a place of rest instead of resting from work. But I think in our society, in our world so often it's the opposite.
And so for this rest acronym I've developed for you guys are the first letter R is resist productivity Because in this 2022 coming into 2023 world, it's a go go, go, do, do do mentality. We're constantly being bombarded by notifications and news and especially as moms meeting the needs of others, the needs of our spouse, the needs of our Children, the needs in our church and community, the needs of our clients, maybe our friends, so on and so forth.
And to cease or resist productivity seems very backwards. It feels wrong and I just want to encourage you that that is kind of the whole idea here that God has outlined. He it specifically says in genesis 22 and three, that he rested from all the work that he had done. And this resisting productivity is an idea that we really need to cling to when we're focusing on rest.
I shared in the episode last month with Robbie, my husband where we were talking about the sabbath and how to honor the sabbath as a christian family that I was, we were making pancakes for breakfast just as fun as a family.
Making a nice big breakfast is something we love to do on our sabbath and I had this thought and even expressed it out loud that I can get another thing of pancake mix and I can just make a bunch of pancakes right now and then we can freeze them and have them for breakfast and grab and go like throughout the week. And then I had this overwhelming feeling come over me saying no, Sasha, it's okay to not produce, to not be productive in the midst of the day. And so are is resist productivity.
I think it's in line with scripture and I think it's really, really important for us to give our our mind and our heart and our soul and our body. This space of rest. Okay, next letter and rest is e and I've dubbed that eliminate the unnecessary you guys, there's so much in our lives that is truly unnecessary from the materialistic things. The world has us chasing and storing up in our homes to the thoughts and things that we keep thinking about or obsessing over that truly don't matter.
And so many of the things that we allow to occupy our head space in terms of things on our to do list or things that we're striving for that truly and ultimately do not matter. But we get caught up and so this is an important reason for us to take the time to rest, to take the time to have that turning in to get quiet to cease from productivity.
So that these things can be brought into awareness for us so that we can lay them down in Matthew chapter 11 verses 20 through 30 jesus says come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest, take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light and I just want to bring that into perspective and into awareness for you because every time I read this verse, I think of Moms, I think about this massive to do list and all these responsibilities that are constantly weighing us down in our heads day in and day out of things that truly we are not meant to be carrying because we have jesus, we are in christ therefore we should be walking with him, we should be learning from him,
we should be taking up his yoke because his burden is light and it is in him that we will find rest for our souls. S is the next letter and rest. And that is for seek stillness. And I will admit I am the most guilty in this one. I need to exercise more diligence and more practice in the seeking stillness because I will be the first one that says how can I make my rest more productive? And in all honesty, that's the opposite of what rest is right. Going back to number one resist productivity.
But at the same time I will often times find rest in activities. I will find rest in getting things off of my to do list. It brings my soul rest at times or I'll find rest in doing a craft like macrame or even watching movies or tv shows or playing a video game. And that's not exactly stillness right? That's not exactly bringing me to a place of ultimate rest of resting in the lord of being still and waiting on him. And those times were we do seek stillness.
We notice that there is this whole mind body soul heart transformation that comes all together from the stillness and rest or from that rest in stillness. I was watching the new show on um what is it National Geographic? It's like in partnership with Disney and it's called limitless.
And it's about chris Hemsworth and they were talking about being out in the wilderness and how unplugging from your phone and technology just being out in nature, connecting listening with your own ears and seeing with your own eyes and navigating can be so good for your brain for preventing Alzheimer's and for your memory and so many other things.
And so that just got me thinking along these lines of stillness and rest and just further developing this idea of how much goodness comes when we truly sit in stillness, when we don't have to be doing something with our hands or stimulating our minds. But just sitting in the present moment. And so much goodness comes from that. And then the last letter in rest is tea and that is to test everything against scripture. Prayer and your values.
And this comes about because it's something I so often see for myself and my clients, right? We get caught up in the world like we were talking about with the productivity and unnecessary stuff, right? But we get so caught up in saying yes to things that aren't really our best. Yes, they're not well discerned yeses. And so we can fill our schedule and we can fill our days and we can fill our mind with so many things that truly aren't for us because they're not in line with our values.
They're not in line with what we're called to do in this season. And we know that through taking the time to process out our values, what are our values, What is God calling us to in this season, spending time in prayer, but then also testing everything against scripture because that is God's word, that is truth with a capital T.
And I've been in in coaching programs and in training programs and in circles of friends and all different kinds of things where my soul is not at rest because what I am engulfed in and surrounded by is not something that's been tested by scripture or prayer. And so I just want to encourage you to when you're coming back to a place of rest and I hope you're doing it regularly.
Hope you're doing it at a minimum weekly according to what we talked about in the beginning with genesis two and in that sabbath day. But I hope you're doing it more frequently. I hope you're doing it maybe even on a daily basis.
First thing in the morning when you wake up first thing or last thing in the evening before you go to bed, finding and creating just this space of rest where you are resisting from productivity, creating that space to focus on and eliminate any of the unnecessary thoughts or activities or anything in your life where you're just seeking that stillness where you're not having to do anything and then again, creating that space to just test everything that you have going on in your life,
Everything that went on in your day, what worked? What didn't work testing all of that against scripture, prayer and your values. Hey sister, I pray this episode has blessed you today. If you think of a sister in christ who would benefit from learning a little bit more about rest, please don't hesitate to send this her way.
But if you yourself are thinking you might need a little bit more rest or peace amongst your productivity in mom life, I want to let you know That we are holding a 20, fresh start. This is an intimate and hands on six week training and coaching program where we are talking about scheduling and time management with awareness and rest. It's going to be amazing. I hope to see you there to sign up for the first details information check out the link in the show.