When Mama Needs a Nap

Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28

Complete and utter exhaustion, that’s what I was feeling. The baby had been up from midnight until 2:00 a.m. just crying, screams of agony. She had a tooth coming in (and I sure was praying that it would pop through already!) and I could not get her to sleep or comfort her. Everything I did was not working. She did not want to rock in the chair and she didn’t want to be walked around like she usually did. I could not get her to sleep, let alone, stop crying. Finally, after exhausting herself, she fell asleep while I rocked her. I just stayed there in the chair with her and dozed off myself. And then, 7:00 a.m. came and there’s a toddler who’s awake and looking for breakfast. There was no sleeping in and no napping for me in the middle of the day. I had to get up and get to it with no rest for myself. 

We all remember the newborn season and the late nights of writhing teething pain or colic. As mothers, it’s ingrained in our memories, the amount of sleep deprivation mixed with the sweet smell of coffee to get you through the day (or at least the next few hours until the coffee wears off). But even as our children grow up and we get past that baby season, we still need rest. We still get awoken by a scared child who has had a bad dream or is experiencing a night terror. We still stay up all night, checking on our child who has a head cold and we’re checking that they’re breathing. We wake up to a child crying because they threw up in their bed and they don’t feel good. And even in the later years, we still lay awake at night with worry about our kids who have moved out into the scary world. 

We’re all in need of rest as moms. 

But not just the physical rest, we need the spiritual rest too, and oh how lucky we are that we can find it with God. That He can strengthen us in our times of exhaustion and help us get through the day. That He reminds us to lay all of our troubles and worries at His feet so that He can take the burden from us. That He is our refuge and our rock that will sustain us through these difficult days. I sometimes get caught up in life and lose sight of that, but even a quick ten minutes in my Bible, and I immediately feel my soul at rest. Even a quick prayer at the kitchen counter as I wait for my coffee to finish brewing, and I can feel the hope sweep over me; the hope that I can get through another tiring day because He alone sustains me. 

Get some rest, mama, turn to Him and He will sustain you and get you through whatever difficult season you’re facing.