If you’re a mother of little ones you may know that it’s really hard to find peace during the week. There’s always another diaper to change, mess to clean, and mouth to feed. And those needs don’t stop on Shabbat.
So how are you supposed to find rest and peace on your Sabbath?
Right now I am in the thick of early motherhood. I have two boys who are two and under. And if I’m being honest, rest is rarely found these days. But I still want to honor the Lord and His Sabbath even in this season.
And I have come to realize that resting on the Sabbath and finding peace in my Heavenly Father has nothing to do with what I can physically do. If I have the house completely cleaned and all of our meals prepped for Shabbat my heart and soul may still not be at peace.
It is a mindset shift. If I am going to find peace and rest of the Sabbath I have to let everything else go. All of the worries and stress from the week has to be put aside. Any bitterness or overwhelm that may have come up the past week has to be released to my Heavenly Father.
On the Sabbath diapers are going to still need to be changed and I will still have little mouths that need to be fed.
But what doesn’t need to still be present is the feeling that I can’t rest because I am still in mothering mode.
I can rest because I know that the Lord will grant me rest even in this season. He will meet me on the floor while I am cleaning up my toddler’s spilt breakfast on Sabbath morning. I can spend my time in prayer and worship with Him even while I am still being a mother.
Does this mean that I don’t prepare the day before to make my Sabbath easier? No. I still clean the house and fix our meals ahead. And our home slows on Shabbat in many ways.
But right now in this season Sabbath is more about resting my burdens in my Father’s hands for a day and finding peace in His presence even more so when Shabbat roles around.
This season of having littles, sleepless nights, tantrums, dirty diapers, and never ending messes to clean will only be for a little while longer. One day I will look back on this time as beautiful even in the tears and the messes. And I will realize that the Lord was teaching me a valuable lesson of finding mental rest in Him over physical rest.
If you are in a similar season of chasing after littles and are wanting to find a better way to rest on the Sabbath I’m going to leave you with these. Here are a few tips that you can maybe implement next Shabbat to help you find some mental peace.
- make easy/one pot meals for your Sabbath
- use paper plates for easy cleanup
- make a special toy basket for each of your kids that you pull out on Shabbat that will keep their attention for a while
- ask your husband to take the kids for a little bit so you can have some quiet time (even if that’s just fifteen minutes)
- set a peaceful environment of Sabbath by playing worship music, diffusing oil, spending time outside, etc.
In His amazing love,
Hannah Marie
