Previous Challenge Entry
Topic: Rest (06/14/04)
|
TITLE: When Can I Relax? By Penny Williams 06/22/04 |
 LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE
SEND A PRIVATE COMMENT
SEND ARTICLE TO A FRIEND
|
First, there was cleaning up after breakfast; I learned how to do dishes when I turned four. When my first brother was born, when I was six, my years of being known as the "built in babysitter and dishwasher" began.
Life went on, and the tasks became more complex. Oh, sure, there was playtime, but I sometimes think that was just designed to get me out of my mother's hair.
School years were no better, for there was homework, and by the time I was in fifth grade, I was staying at home with two brothers and doing the dishes, ironing, and dusting before Mom got home from the hairdresser. My dad worked 6-7 days a week, so there was not much support there.
Finally, I had enough of what I considered to be slave-driving, so hastened to marry just after my eighteenth birthday. Well, talk about out of the frying pan...! Oh boy, I just had no idea what I was in for with that decision.
When I was 21, the Lord Most High came into my life. No, He did not "give me rest" in so much the physical realm, but He certainly gave rest to a very weary soul. I had begun to make a mess of everything I touched, by then, and He showed me the Way out of those predicaments. My marriage was renewed, and even my parents could see the difference.
God certainly brings refreshment to a dry and parched life. That is definitely what I knew before He came into my heart, and how He gives serenity and peace in the darkest hours, day by day, year after year.
I am grateful for the Rest in Him, my Lord and my God. Without Him, all is turmoil, while with Him, there is joy, rest and peace.