Rest and Do Nothing.

When I was a new mama everyone told me; "Sleep when the baby sleeps." And for the first couple weeks that was an awesome idea of which I took full advantage of. Which was easy to do when I had my mom, my Grandma, my Sister and a Husband all at my disposal to help me with everything. Those Grandmas they are awesome at making sure you eat, doing your laundry and just keeping your house together so you can just be with your newborn. My husband took a week paternity leave as well. Those first few weeks as a new mom were so wonderful to have all the help I needed to get the rest I needed. 

I remember the day my family all left and my husband went back to work. I said good-bye to them, I had Ava strapped onto my in the baby bjorn. I closed the door and thought; "Welp, it's just us, now what we I do?"

Sounds silly but I'm sure you've had similar moments if you're a mama. If you're not a mom, you're a women too who's trying to juggle it all. And just trying to do her best. I know as women we often don't take the time to rest and take care of ourselves, however let me challenge you with this; 

There's always going to be laundry to be done. There's always going to be a to-do list that could be conquered.

There's always another phone call to be made. But the moments you spend with Jesus are better and should be more than you do all those other things. 

Now, don't get my wrong her I'm not saying you should let your home go to crap, never get things done or neglect what you're responsible for. 

I am saying their should be priority in putting Jesus first. Setting down with him and reading his word, seeking his will in prayer and giving yourself permission to rest because he already has. 

My second challenge for you is this; every now and then do nothing. Rest and do nothing. 

When it's nap time and there's a million things to get done and it's your golden hour, I get it. But, instead sit down and do nothing. Take a moment for yourself. 

When it's the weekend and you want to tackle the things you didn't get to during the week, do nothing instead. Hang out with your family and not feel guilty about not getting something done or being "more productive."

Today during nap time I did something I've been wanting to do for a long time but just haven't. I sat down printed my Instagram photos and put them into little albums. Taking a moment to reflect and remember all these little moments and the life God has give me today. 

Resting in Him.

Instead of the million other things on my mind that I could have been doing. 

I hope you'll join me in this thought of "resting and doing nothing." Rest in him ladies.

This post is apart of a series #31daysofRestinginHim to find out more visit this link for more posts on this topic. #write31days

God Gave Us Permission To Rest.

By the end of the seventh day God has finished the work he has been dong; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. Genesis 2:2

Every time I look at the morning sky, see the waves crashing in the in the ocean or drive through the mountains here in Arizona I am reminded of God's goodness. Reminded that he took great detail and pleasure in creating this place for us. The very first line of the Bible it's talking about how God created the heavens and the earth. 

Now, this was a big job. He separated the light from the darkness. Created the land animals would roam on. Gave us vegetation on the land to eat, created the oceans, lakes and rivers. Every bit of his creation mirrored himself and that includes us. 

And when it was all over when he was done he rested. He took the seventh day from his work and he rested. It's the purpose behind the Sabbath. To rest. 

God gave us permission to rest, so we should.

I know most of the time during my day I've always got the next thing on my mind that needs to get done. A 'to-do' list a mile long that won't complete itself. Anyone else feel like this too? 

There are days when I feel so overwhelmed with the tasks I have to complete that I barely feel like I make a dent. On this journey I've been feeling like God wants me to rest. 

To abandon the lists, the plans and rest in Him. 

He's teaching me that it's more than ok to let go of those things in order to rest in Him. He's teaching me that it's important for me to take a step back, keep things into perspective and focus on Him. 

I think a lot of times as women and mothers we've got so much going on that we forget about ourselves. We put showering and take general care of ourselves low on the priority list. I mean I get it, just this morning everyone else got breakfast before I did, even the dog. I get that there's a real struggle here sometimes. 

But I would challenge you today to make sure you're resting and taking care of yourself as well. It's vital to you're overall health but most importantly it's vital to your growing relationship with Christ. 

If we're to busy accomplishing our task list and haven't sat down with Him yet we've missed the point. We've missed the goodness he has for us, we've missed what he wants to speak to us that day. 

Make a commitment today to spend time time daily resting in Him. Spending some quiet time with Him, because he desires to be with us. 

This post is apart of a series #31daysofRestinginHim to find out more visitthis link for more posts on this topic. #write31days 

Welcome to 31 Days of Resting in Him.

Out of the overflow of the mouth the heart speaks. Someone once told me that we minister from a place where we've been, and I think that is so true for so many reasons.

We go through things in life sometimes so that we can help others who may be in the same place as we are. For the last few months God has been taking me on a journey of rest. Not just physical rest, but spiritual rest in Him. 

The truth is we should always rest in Jesus. Rest on his unchanging grace. 

But the reality is most of the time although we love the Lord sometimes he's the last person we go to when we need rest. Jesus said all you who are heavy burden, come to me and I will give you rest. 

What if he said instead;

When your marriage is falling apart, I will give you rest. 

When your children aren't acting the way you think they should and you're at the breaking point, I will give you rest. 

When you're at your lowest, I will give you rest.

When relationships are hard, messy and confusing, I will give you rest.

When your finances are crumbling, I will give you rest. 

When everything is going right, You can still rest in me. 

God's been teaching me the last few months that it's not just about the burdens or when things are going wrong that I need rest. Nope, it's the everyday grind.

I need to rest in Him daily. Spend time with him daily. Let him speak to me, rest in Him so that he might teach me more about himself. That I may mature in Christ, and draw me closer to Him. 

Join me for the next 31 days as we spend the month of October resting in Him. Let's unpack this together, I hope you'll join me in conversation.

I'll be writing and sharing my heart here. Some days there might be a challenge for the week, others there might just be a scripture and a thought about rest in Him. Let's challenge each other to rest in Him.

Join me on this journey, use the hashtag above to find out more about this series on social media! 

31 Days of Resting in Him.

For the longest time I've wanted to link up with the Nester's 31 Day writing challenge, where you write on the same topic for 31 days in October, and I just haven't yet. This year I'm excited to finally link up, and challenge myself to write about something God's been challenging me with the last few months. 

REST.

More specifically what it looks like to rest in Him. I'm excited to explore more of this topic and what God is revealing to me about rest. Not just in the physical sense but spiritually and mentally as well. 

Join me along this journey starting October 1st! To find out more on the 31 Days writing challenge visit the website here.

Altars & Idols.

For a few months my women's Bible study at church was studding about sacrifice & suffering. It came at such an important time for me as I felt like at the end of last year God was speaking to me during my quiet time about this very same issue. 

God started to reveal to me these different things and areas that he was asking me to take a look at, things that he was asking me to sacrifice for him. As I started praying through some of these things that God had laid on my heart, I started to notice a trend in all of these things. 

Here was my list; my blog, my photography business, and my heart for ministry. 

Being completely honest and vulnerable here God was showing me that these areas of my life had become more about myself and less about Him. 

They had become about being known. 

Being known around blog land, being known in the world of creative photographers and being known in the church. It had become about selfish gain. 

I wasn't happy with these areas of my life and the direction they were going because I'd been spending to much time on my own trying to make something happen. Instead of letting God use those gifts. Use them to bless others, use them to share his heart and gospel. It had becoming about me and my own agenda. 

They had become idols. 

Idols are built when the flesh takes over and there's no room for God. 

As I started to work through these areas, and seek the Lord in them I knew that he was asking me to lay them down. 

To build an altar and lay them down. To sacrifice them. Part of that sacrifice was letting go of my ministers credentials. Another part of that was taking a step back from my blog and photography biz and really examine my heart behind it and my motives.

An altar is made when we lay things down sacrificially. 

I realized very quickly that everything in my life was either an altar I was willing to lay down before the Lord, or it was an idol that I'd built up that had nothing to do with God and was completely all about ME! 

I realized I had a choice. I could either build idols, or I could build altars before the Lord and let him make something really beautiful. 

I challenge you today that if you're struggling with an area of your life to take a step back and pray about weather you're building altars or idols? My encouragement is that we always have the open handed attitude towards Christ where we hold our "things" our kids, our family, our blogs, our business in an open handed way that says to the Lord, 

"Do with it what you will."