Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened,
and I will cause you to rest. [I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.]
Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me,
for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and you will find rest
(relief and ease and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet) for your souls.
Matthew 11:28-29 Amplified Bible

When my granddaughter, Grace, was an infant, my daughter took her to the pediatrician for a follow-up visit. She was a tiny little thing, just two months old at the time. Her older sister, Charity, had gone along to help Mom. Because of some problems she had since birth, they needed to take blood from her vein rather than a finger prick. They were all in the examination room when the blood was to be extracted, so the nurse asked Charity to stand at the head of the table and help hold and calm her, while mom stood at the side.

As she was so tiny, the nurse had a difficult time inserting the syringe. Charity was at her post trying not to get upset at the quickly escalating fiasco. But as Grace got more upset, Charity’s stress level was elevating also. Then it peaked. She started to wobble a bit, her eyes lost focus and at that point her mom saw her slide slowly down the wall and under the table. She had fainted! They had to put the blood work on hold and take care of Charity who was out cold! She was trying so hard to be strong for her baby sister, but the stress took its toll.

Sometimes life is like that. I know personally, I always want to be strong for my family. I will put my own health in jeopardy to meet their needs or desires. But especially during holidays when the pace is so hectic anyway, it can take a toll. And often our stress is not necessarily from outside sources, but self-imposed. We don’t want to say “no”. We don’t want to inconvenience anyone else…never mind about us! We don’t even want to compromise. We want to do it the way we’ve done it for the last umpteen years and we want to do it perfectly. And besides, if you want it done right (whatever it is), do it yourself! Does any of this sound familiar?

Well the only problem with this attitude is that circumstances and people (including ourselves) change from year to year. And if we don’t change with them, the stress level can max us out to the point that we end up under the table! We can become overly fatigued or even sick. When that happens, we’re no good to anyone, not even ourselves! I must tell you that I’m writing this from personal experience. My lessons in moderation have been learned the hard way. I’ve always wanted to be Super-Mom, Super-Friend, just Super to everyone! But as the years have passed some of my super powers have waned a bit. I’ve had to make some modifications to my job description. I’ve come to understand that it’s more important to me and my family for me to be in super-rest rather than super-stress. And when I forget that, I go to the Lord, give it to Him once again, and enter into the rest that only complete confidence in Him can bring.

Truly my soul finds rest in God; my salvation comes from him.
Psalm 62:1