I came across the following passage and thought it fits perfectly with my Saturday's theme of urging widows to rest. Grief drains, exhausts, and stresses people out emotionally, spiritually and physically. Rest in each of those areas is essential. Here's a good analogy on rest from the Christian classic, The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life, by Hannah Whitall Smith. Check in on Monday, and we'll look at the question of trust. Until then, may you find some moments of rest this weekend.
♥ ferree
* * *
Do you recollect the delicious sense of rest with which you
have
sometimes gone to bed at night, after a day of great exertion and
weariness? How delightful was the sensation of relaxing every muscle,
and letting your body go in a perfect abandonment of ease and comfort.
The strain of the day had ceased for a few hours at least, and the work
of the day had been thrown off. You no longer had to hold up an aching
head or a weary back. You trusted yourself to the bed in an absolute
confidence, and it held you up, without effort, or strain, or even
thought on your part. You rested.
But suppose you had doubted the strength or the stability of your bed,
and had dreaded each moment to find it giving away beneath you and
landing you on the floor; could you have rested then? Would not every
muscle have been strained in a fruitless effort to hold yourself up,
and would not the weariness have been greater than not to have gone to
bed at all?
Let this analogy teach you what it means to rest in the Lord. Let your
souls lie down upon His sweet will, as your bodies lie down in your
beds at night. Relax every strain and lay off every burden. Let
yourselves go in perfect abandonment of ease and comfort, sure that
when He holds you up you are perfectly safe.
sometimes gone to bed at night, after a day of great exertion and
weariness? How delightful was the sensation of relaxing every muscle,
and letting your body go in a perfect abandonment of ease and comfort.
The strain of the day had ceased for a few hours at least, and the work
of the day had been thrown off. You no longer had to hold up an aching
head or a weary back. You trusted yourself to the bed in an absolute
confidence, and it held you up, without effort, or strain, or even
thought on your part. You rested.
But suppose you had doubted the strength or the stability of your bed,
and had dreaded each moment to find it giving away beneath you and
landing you on the floor; could you have rested then? Would not every
muscle have been strained in a fruitless effort to hold yourself up,
and would not the weariness have been greater than not to have gone to
bed at all?
Let this analogy teach you what it means to rest in the Lord. Let your
souls lie down upon His sweet will, as your bodies lie down in your
beds at night. Relax every strain and lay off every burden. Let
yourselves go in perfect abandonment of ease and comfort, sure that
when He holds you up you are perfectly safe.
The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life, chapter 3
Hannah Whitall Smith (1832-1911)
* * *
That is so true. I will need to copy this and put it away for future reference.
ReplyDeleteHi Feree, I think most widows go through a PTSD stage. I know I did. And when that happened, I needed to rest...rest in the Lord!
ReplyDelete