Finding Rest

The Christian life is not a struggle to live rightly but rather resting in Christ and finding in Him our life and our righteousness. -Andrew Murray

The concept of finding rest keeps coming up in my life. So obviously that means God is trying to tell me something! I've been a believer long enough to at least have that figured out. Now to actually learn the lesson…

I've shared this verse at least a couple other times before on the blog, which is saying something since I don't blog very often! So God must be saying something to you, too, Reader!

I've had in my head that to find rest, even finding it in God, means that everything around me has to change. 

This is not true.

When I am in the midst of the chaos of 4 kids and Derek comes home from his 10 hour day and goes straight to bed, I can find rest.

Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power… Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary. Isaiah 40:28-29, 31

(Marie completely randomly blurted out the reference "Isaiah 40:31" a couple days ago. From the mouth of babes…)

I think that I need…

a date night
a girls night
kid-free errand running
a workout
a clean house
Netflix
a silent morning
perfect obedience
an uninterrupted hot shower
sleep
food

...to find rest.

And these things are good gifts God gives me (on occasion ha!) to encourage rest. But when I depend on these things to find rest, at best these things will give temporary relief, at worst, added stress!

But when I am in constant communion with my God, when I give our relationship the effort and focus and love that it deserves, I can find rest anywhere, anytime. Because God is there, anywhere, anytime.

Taste and see that the Lord is good; how blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him! Psalm 34:8

Let the heart of those who seek the Lord be glad. Seek the Lord and His strength; Seek His face continually. 1 Chronicles 16:10-11 

Pray without ceasing. 1 Thessalonians 5:17

Go to Him. Talk to Him. Listen to Him. Anytime. Anywhere.

Find Rest.

This Week in [Home]School - Celebrating Dr. Seuss

We LOVE Dr. Seuss.

Maybe I should say I love Dr. Seuss and therefore force my children to love his books as well.

I'm just being a good mom honest!

Here's a little of what we did to celebrate his 111th birthday...

We made Cat in the Hat hats by coloring stripes on white paper bags. Then wadded up paper and had several contests to see who could get the most wads in the hats.

We wrote and colored birthday cards for Dr. Seuss while watching The Cat in the Hat on PBS kids.

I printed out a bunch of fun pages from seussville.com, and Marie spent some time playing games on the website.

We went to the library for a little Dr. Seuss birthday party where they had a snack of a jello and whip cream parfait to look like the Cat's Hat.

We actually have 3 Dr. Seuss games. "I Can Do That Game," "Green Eggs and Ham," and a Dr. Seuss matching game. I need to play matching games more often. I think it's probably good exercise for my mommy brain.

We did other miscellaneous coloring pages and word searches and math pages.

This is Jack's! He said he wants to ride a helicopter when he grows up so he drew one. Can you find it? I think he did amazing!

I saved all the Lorax stuff for tonight because I wanted to watch The Lorax for family night only to realize that we don't own it and it is no longer on Netflix :( But we still made mustaches and watched Horton Hears a Who instead.

And of course, there was lots of reading of the greatest children's books ever written!

This week we were insanely busy. We only did school at home on Monday and today. So I have more fun plans to celebrate Dr. Seuss for next week. And hopefully get back into regular routine.

Need a Roger pic!

By the way, the Jacobs School is accepting any and all donations of Dr. Seuss (Theo Geisel) books and related movies ;)

Did you do anything special this week in school?