Wisdom from My Mother

"Yes, my soul, find rest in God;  my hope comes from Him."

    - Psalm 62:5

"Therefore, my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices, my body also will rest in hope."

   - Acts 2:26

My mom has only been gone 8 months, but sometimes it feels like forever.  My granddaughter was with me over the weekend, and she was definitely one of my mom's favorites.  More than once I caught myself thinking I needed to call mom and have her come over to see us.  Mom left a pretty big hole after she was gone.  You never had to guess where you stood with her.  She'd tell you, in no uncertain terms.  Mom never had a filter, so she didn't have one to lose when she got older.  That was just the way she was.

I remember a lot of the things mom told me about myself even after I was an adult.  One in particular used to drive me crazy.  She'd try to get me to slow down, to make choices that would give me more rest.  To say no once in a while and take care of myself.  Made me crazy,and of course I didn't listen .  I didn't think she remotely understood what life was in the 80s and 90s.  I couldn't possibly slow down.  She was completely out of touch.

Fast forward to 2017.  Since I've finally KINDA grown up at 63, I get it.  I know many of the health things I am experiencing are from burning the candle at both ends for many, many years.  If I was younger, knowing what I know now about how important rest is, I would do things very differently.  Shoulda listened to mom.

In his book "Little House on the Freeway", Dr. Tim Kimmel addresses the marks of a hurried family.  In chapter 2 he says, "While counseling individuals and couples over the past few decades, I've observed at least 7 characteristics that mark hurried families.  Separately these characteristics are toxic.  Combine them and they're deadly.  They kill the faith, joy, and love needed for a family to stay calm and connected."   He goes on to list those characteristics as:

• We're so busy that we can't relax
• We're uncomfortable with quiet
• We're seldom satisfied with what we have
• We live according to shifting moral standards
• We're overworked and underappreciated
• We worry about things we can't control
• We aren't happy until we're successful

Oh my goodness!  Did the man watch me through my 20s to my 40s?  All he had to add to that list was sleep less than 5 hours a night, never nap, and for sure don't stop when you're sick.  But Kimmel goes deeper to talk about "rest" and how we sabotage our own efforts at finding peace.  It is a very good read.  You should check it out.

You see, the rest we long for so much, is really only found in one place.  As the scripture says:... "my soul, find rest in God".  Real rest, deep spiritual rest, is only found in a close relationship with Christ.  Notice I said close relationship.  I think any of us in this walk with God can relate to that.  When we are walking closely with Him, things are just different.  We may be having all sorts of problems, temptations, sorrows.  But, if we are staying in the Word and doing our best to remain closely tied to Him, everything is just DIFFERENT.    Same problems, just a different attitude.  That, my friends, is rest.

What about the things Kimmel listed as the hurried family characteristics?  Do those apply to Christians?  They sure can,  But here's the difference.  If we are "searching Him with our whole heart", He shows us when we are too busy, uncomfortable with quiet, dissatisfied, letting our families become lax on our moral standards, over worked, full of worry, unhappy.  He loves us enough to do that very thing.  We block Him from showing these things, however, if we don't spend the time with Him we know that we need to.  When we give that up, we open the door for everything else to become a problem in our lives.

Rest.  True rest is only found in Him and in His Word.  Wish I had known that back then, mom.  If I had, that rest you wanted me to have would have come much more easily.  Never too late.......