Weary

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Matthew 11:28-30

Another sleepless night of being a mom brought me to this verse this morning. I set my alarm for group, just in case the night had gone well. When it went off, I was so out of it, I decided to stay in bed. Why am I so guilt-ridden when I do something like that. Gabe had only been up once and I went to him and slept in his bed for an hour. Millie was up a few times just stirring, so I went to Em's bed and slept there for 3 hours so I wouldn't have to keep doing the stairs. Fed Millie and back to my bed. One night's sleep in 3 different beds is starting to wear on me. But there I lay, anyway, at 5:08, with my cell phone alarm going off and I feel like a total slacker for missing group. Anyway, decided to get up with the screeching Millie - she'll go back to sleep if I put her in my bed - at 6:30 and see if I could find some encouragement in scripture this morning. In sharing our gauges last night at small group, I shared how all of mine are empty and still draining, but that I knew if I could give my spiritual gauge just a little fuel, the rest would take an upswing. So, I decided to act on it. I knew I wouldn't have much time before that dreaded high school bus came by at 6:55 and woke my babies up (they slept through it so far.) so I jumped to the New Testament and found this verse waiting for me in Matthew.

I don't know if you're supposed to apply every Bible verse to yourself for your own personal comfort - I'm sure that's extremely self-absorbed, but this sure was nice to read this morning. I feel weary, I feel burdened, I want rest for my soul! I read the footnote and it had a great illustration of how a yoke is still meant for hard labor and in this verse, Jesus isn't promising a life of luxurious ease, but what he is promising is a Partner for the yoke. I don't feel as though I've kept God out of this funk that I'm in, but I think maybe I've expected Him to make it all better, just like that. I like this better - I will still work at it, but He will be right alongside me. Because, in reality, I don't have a decrease in work load coming anytime soon.

And there it is, a little fuel for my spiritual tank.