A Pair of Pajamas

It has been a really long time since I have put thoughts into words on here. There have been moments throughout the months that I thought about it, but no action done. This past week the Lord has been speaking to me to start again. It’s scary though. Writing on here makes me feel vulnerable. It shows my mistakes (I am not super great at spelling or grammar). It shows parts of my heart and the messiness that goes along with that. It opens up more of who I am. But my deepest desire for this blog  is to be as real and as honest I can be. It’s a place where I continue to discover who I am by allowing the words to just come out and that’s what I have been learning through this season of rest. The importance of standing up for “me”.

Last week, I finished a book by one of my favorite authors, Shauna Niequist, called Present Over Perfect. There are so many good nuggets of truth in this book along with all her others, but one thing I applied right away was getting a pair of pajamas. I got a pair of pajamas because (ok stay with me here in this little explanation) in the book Shauna talks about how someone told her that when you go to bed in your workout clothes your body associate it with working out so you are not really resting. Which I am completely guilty of wearing my running shorts and an old t-shirt from high school sports. Anyways, so you are suppose to wear pajamas. It tells your body it’s time to rest and sleep. So the whole point of this little explanation is to tell you I found the perfect pair of pajamas that sums up the lesson I have learned from this season of “amoeba”!

Rest. relax.Repeat

Rest. It means so many different things. To stop. To allow your body to recover. To not do. To just be. Rest has been something that I have struggled with for so long. I have always love to go, go,go, but God stopped me in this past season. He used a bad situation of getting an amoeba to bring good out of it  in teaching me a new definition of rest. You see before I would “rest” but almost always feel guilty for resting or feeling like I was suppose to be doing something. I couldn’t really figure out how I truly rested. You see I was messing the part where you relax.But what does it mean to relax???

Relax. It means to make less tense. To seek rest. To cast off feelings or thoughts.  Relax. The me before this season would say “who has time to relax?” What do you do to relax? What is relaxful? Who even knows?! But really I didn’t know what relaxing looked like in my life. I needed a fresh revelation. I needed to get my heart right with the Lord and seek His heart for this area in my life.

So I had to ask the Lord “what does rest and being relaxed look like in my life?” “How can I apply and live this out?” I know that resting is important to God because in the very first book of the bible God talks about how He created the world in six days and on the seventh day He rested. So if God rested who I am to say that I can’t rest. It’s not even possibly. It’s super arrogant of me to think that and a sin. The Lord has taken me on a month long journey of really discovering what it looks like in my life to rest and relax and you know what it includes putting up boundaries, saying no and taking care of myself. This is where I have learned the importance of “standing up for me”. It’s not an excuse, but it’s a good check to make sure I am giving my best self instead of striving and tired self with a bad heart attitude underneath. It makes sure my heart is right and I am well rested so I can give my very best in what the Lord is asking of me. Key phrase “in what the Lord is asking of me!” It means I need to be diligent about asking the Lord what He wants me to be part of , what He wants me to do and what He wants to let someone else have an opportunity to do.

Even though resting and relaxing have been on repeat for past 6 months (definitely with lots of struggles) I am learning to embrace it and really starting to love it. I am starting to see the beautiful thing God created on the seventh day, “rest”.

Rest is truly beautiful once you rid yourself of the striving in your life and the guilt you put on yourself for resting and not doing, but instead you ask the Lord “what does rest look like in my life?” Allow Him to take you this journey of discovering something so beautiful and rich in your life. You will be forever changed and I believe so much better prepared to keep on going for Jesus!  If would you like to talk to me more about this topic just let me know!

Happy resting!

Daniella

P.S This is what my resting looks like these days. I first asked the question “What is life giving to me?” and from there discovered things that would be relaxing to me!

Daily: creating/carving out time to: read, bake or do watercolor art

Weekly: One day a week taking a morning to sit by the lake or in the sunny backyard and dream with God. Journel.

Monthly: One day a month: set aside a day to “do something restful”: go to a coffee shop & blog, read for the afternoon in cozy spot,  go exploring with a friend (no agenda), or watch a movie (just watch and not multitask) & eat popcorn (this is such a rare moment for me that it is truly restful).