Reviving Rest

I'm participating in a Bible study this fall...a new group for me. It's something I chose to do to be able to meet together with other women and be purposeful about my study time. During our first meeting, we received our shiny new books and our first assignment to complete before our next study.

When I saw the words in print, outlining the first assignment, it was all I could do to keep from jumping up and down. In fact, when I stopped by Ryan's work on the way home, I did jump up and down telling him about it.

The assignment was to go to bed at a decent hour one night and sleep until my body woke up naturally.

What?

A night with no alarms to interrupt? Sleeping until noon if I so desired? Had Christmas morning just come to Bible study?

I felt just the tiniest bit guilty about the whole thing, because I knew there were probably some women in the study who genuinely couldn't complete the assignment because of jobs or kids that wouldn't permit a true, uninterrupted sleep-in. And then I felt the tiniest bit joyful that for this season of my life, I could find a day for such a luxury.

It ended up happening Friday night and Saturday morning. I canceled all our plans for Friday night (except dinner, of course, because I'm not completely crazy!) and we simply rested on the couch, watching TV and talking. I didn't even multi-task my resting. I just rested.

We went to bed and I double/triple checked my alarm to make sure it was turned off.

I slept...and slept...and slept...and slept...

until:

(If that photo looks blurry...well, it is. I wasn't awake yet.)

So apparently I can no longer sleep until noon, but this beautiful wakeup time gave me nine hours and four minutes of sleep, probably a record for me since my gallcation a few years ago.

It was such a glorious morning. Ryan treated me to breakfast-in-couch, unending cups of coffee, and more rest.

It set the whole tone for the day, really. It was the day that hadn't gone as we planned. We weren't able to go to the football game and it rained like crazy, but we were able to spend time with my mom on her birthday, and we were able to be our nephew's first babysitters that night.

A day of true rest is a gift, and it's one we don't give ourselves very often, I'm afraid.

My Bible study book asked me to detail what I learned about faith from this time of intentional rest. I wrote that sometimes living out my faith is hard work, but sometimes merely having faith in Christ means I can live with a peace and a rest that revives me.

I'm grateful for the rest for my body and my soul. Both were sorely needed.

By the way...I peeked at next week's assignment already. Social media fast. I have done no jumping about that one.