If you’re tired today, that’s okay. Being tired means you’ve worked hard, given much, loved deep. To need rest isn’t weakness, it’s proof you’ve offered your all.
In the moments when you need rest, welcome yourself with gentleness the way you would a warrior returning from battle. Put an invisible hand on your shoulder, tell yourself, “Well done, that wasn’t easy.” Offer yourself a cup of water, a place to sit down for a moment. Ask yourself what you need.
You only require rest when you’ve worked hard in some way. Maybe it was with your heart, doing the work of loving or healing. It might have been with your head, doing the work of creating or solving. Perhaps it was with your hands, serving or supporting. Or it could be all three that took your energy.
It’s easy to say, “I should be able to do more” or “I should be able to keep going.” But rest is a rhythm we all need. Work hard, rest, repeat. Having limitations is not a sin; it’s a reality of being human.
You serve a Savior who took a nap on a boat, who sat down by a well because He was weary, who retreated to quiet places to pray. God wrapped in skin rested. God creating the world in the beginning rested. To rest is not to fail, it is to follow the example of the One whose image you’re created in.
Rest doesn’t begin by stopping what you’re doing; it begins by daring to believe what’s true. Take a deep breath then say to your soul, “I am already loved. I am already enough. I have nothing to prove.” Then, dear warrior, let yourself rest today.
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