I find one of the greatest ironies of life to be the issue of taking a nap. As parents, we fight HARD for our children to take afternoon naps. They are growing so fast that rest is essential to their well-being, right?

Kids, on the other hand, DO NOT AGREE with this logic! Daily nap-time can quickly turn a household into a war zone- mine certainly did!

I am an RN and chose to work the Night Shift in the early years of motherhood. This meant that nap-time was as much for me as it was for my son! I NEEDED him to have a daily routine of napping – even if I was working that night or not! I NEEDED him to have that routine of napping no matter where he was or who was watching him that day. This required my grandmother’s to be on board with my system when they were spending the day with him as well!

Needless to say, he did not want to sleep just because I wanted to sleep!

* Don’t even get me started about what happened when my second, more strong-willed, we-don’t-call-him-The Young Master-for-no-reason, son came into the picture!

Right or wrong, it became a battle of wills in our home!

The more desperate I became, the more difficult the battle!

These were NOT the fun times of parenting!

The irony is, as an adult, I WOULD GIVE MY RIGHT ARM FOR A NAP ON MOST DAYS! The reality is that my son is going to figure that out for himself the older he becomes!

My sons are basically teenagers now (14 and 12)…the youngest, The Young Master, who fought the hardest (and won unfortunately) in the “nap war” likes to sleep in until almost noon when he can now…how ironic. The oldest chooses to go to bed early just because he is tired…

Pure irony.

You can’t tell me our God doesn’t have a sense of humor!

The truth is, as an adult, I am tired. YOU are tired. We are all a bunch of tired grown-ups walking around wondering where OUR nap-time went!

I am no different than many of you: I am way too busy! I write about it, I complain about it, I rewrite my calendar because of it…there is no reason to list my reasons or to try to justify it – my “busy” may look different than yours but that does not mean yours is not just as valid!

Let’s decide to agree on that and leave it there- we are all busy people!

The one thing I MAY be doing different than you is why I am blogging today: I am learning to seriously pray about my busyness and to trust God with it.

I am learning to no longer ask God to remove my busyness from me or to clear my schedule for me! I am choosing to no longer feel ashamed because of my busyness as if it means I am doing something wrong!

For so many years, I felt being busy was bad. In fact, at the first sign of feeling overwhelmed by my (usually self-inflicted) crowded schedule, I would quit something. In my teens, I dropped activities. As an adult, I dropped working hours or cancelled on commitments.

In times of stress, I have been encouraged to “not burn the candle at both ends”,  to slow down, or told that I can’t do everything or do not need to do everything– as if “everything” was what I was trying to do. This made me feel embarrassed at how easily I overbooked my itinerary or how often I desired to step in and do something somewhere or for someone.

I have frequently adopted an attitude of shame and weakness in those times of busyness.

Am I alone in that thinking?

I have taken my calendar to the Lord in prayer and have begged Him to show me where I have gone wrong, what can I drop, what is truly important. I have clung to Scriptures telling me to be wise of my time and to make the most of every opportunity…hoping a release would come and give me a break.

I suffer from nightmares just as the Proverb says “being too busy gives you nightmares”.

I have sought counsel and have been told it is “ok” to take a break and wait until a “better time” to do whatever it is on my heart to do.

You know what I have found? That “better” time never comes! In many cases, there is no better time to do something than at the time when you are thinking of doing it !

Life is not going to slow down. Period.

We have entered into the teenage years as parents and now have a Freshman in high school living under our roof. That means he will graduate high school in FOUR years! I have only FOUR years of him living in our daily influence and protection left….after that, he gets to make many of his own choices based on what kind of influence we have instilled into him and his heart by our godly examples.

This means Varsity Cross Country, marching band, parades, dances, home work projects, college prep planning, youth group activities, acts of service…

To put it mildly, I am a chauffer…

That is until he begins to drive himself…

(I believe this is what it will look like when your baby starts to drive but how you feel may look more like this…

…I am only surmising for now since I still have some time)

Let’s face it…I need rest IN my circumstances not a removal of my circumstances so I can rest.

See the difference?

Frankly, this thought has completely lifted a burden off of my shoulders and totally changed the way I pray!

I had previously shared this verse:

Contextually speaking, Moses had ALOT going on! He was the chosen leader to guide the people (2,000,000 people and I am guiding 2…give or take a few activities I am involved in) to the Promised Land.

The Israel nation had been in captivity as slaves for over 400 years. In that time, they had forgotten who Yahweh was to them. So, not only were they disoriented in their surroundings and insecure about their future they were also unsure about this God who had performed such amazing miracles that led to their flight from Egypt.

Moses wanted to know who was going to help him do this mighty task and who was going to go with him.

God’s response was that “I (God) will go with you and give you rest”. His response said all that Moses needed was going to be provided.

Upon reflecting on that simple verse, I cannot help but see that God is NOT lightening the load of Moses…instead He is promising Moses rest as he carries the load. God would be with him as Moses does the work set before him.

Interesting.

Another favorite verse is:

This does not indicate that the burden will be lifted…it clearly states that rest will be provided in the midst of whatever is happening that is burdening us as we turn to Christ…to choose to yoke with Him:

If I continue to believe that rest will only exist in the absence of my busyness then I am going to continue to be disappointed.

As I said, life is not going to slow down. There truly will always be something to either distract us or stress us…

I was browning 6 lbs. of ground beef the other day in preparation for a large meal at a camping trip planned  for this weekend when a beast from the devil (a mouse) decided to almost run over my foot as I cooked in my kitchen! Talk about being stressed and distracted!!!! I had zero time for the paralyzing fear that overtook me at the sight of this “abomination”.

Let me interject with this truth: I.Hate.Mice.

There will always be a “mouse” coming out of nowhere to interrupt your well-designed plan! It looks like an illness that you did not plan for, a death that comes unexpectedly, a broken down car when you need to be in 100 places at once, a job loss when life felt secure, an unplanned pregnancy or miscarriage when all seemed to be moving forward in a pleasant fashion, a significant work or school assignment to be done during a very busy week…I could go on and on and on…

So, what do we do?

Do a clean sweep of our calendar? Feel ashamed that we are tired in the middle of all our activities? Feel pressure to perform at 100% no matter what and frequently beat ourselves up because that is simply not attainable all the time in all activities? Pray for a release? Cling to the promise of a vacation and then feel depressed when it is over because we are more tired than when we left?

Maybe we could try this instead:

• pray for God’s presence to go with us and give us rest in what we are doing
• pray for wisdom in our choices for today
• look for grace for today to get done what needs to be done today
• repeatedly call on the Lord for strength to endure and persevere our chosen path
• accept that in our weakness HE IS STRONGEST and let Him shine through us in this
• trust that God will provide a way to complete what it is He has in store for us

I look at my calendar and think that I must be crazy. What would make the most sense is to drop something. Yet, I do not feel led by the Spirit to do that…and trust me I am praying fervently to be shown what it is I need to be doing.

The more I look for an out, God brings me another activity…and the time and energy to complete it or be present for it…not always to solve it if it is a problem, but to at least be somewhat involved in some part of the process.

That makes me think of how I love the movie Hacksaw Ridge…In it, the lead character prayed “give me one more Lord, one more”…He ended up rescuing 75 souls with his own bloodied, weakened hands…with the presence and rest of the Lord going with him!

I pray that prayer…and God answers my willingness. When I question how are these things/people/needs/requests/opportunities continuing to cross my threshold, my husband reminds me of that request for one more.

It makes me busy….and I am already busy.

So…my prayer instead has become:Give me rest, please give me rest in the middle of all this…..

In the past, the Lord has provided a way to do all He has given me to do…I remember saying to my husband that I often felt like extra minutes were granted in an hour in order for me to do all that I had done…and even found time for a nap or to treat myself to a TV show on the busiest of days!

I am reminded to recall that and to know that

Today, I paid to begin my classes at Nazarene Bible College. In the middle of a crazy fall, I am choosing faith to provide the stamina to do what God has called me to do.

I willingly picked up an extra shift at work at the end of one of the busiest weeks I have had in a long time…I was granted that day off unexpectedly today. ..what a day of rest from the Lord!

My Jesus Always devotion for August 24 wrote with the author’s perspective of Jesus speaking that “I know the depth and breadth of your weariness. Nothing is hidden from Me. There is a time to keep pushing yourself – when circumstances require it – and a time to rest….I approve of you and I approve of rest. When you relax in My Presence, trusting in My finished work on the cross, both you and I are refreshed. ”

Not at any point does there say in the absence of busyness or strenuous activity I will give you rest… it is in His presence that our rest is found.

Give me rest? Jesus answers with an emphatic YES…but I need to take it from His outstretched hand.