S2S Sisters: "Intentional Rest – Living in Belovedness" by Dawn Nolt

Our prayer is that you will be filled with the knowledge of His will, strengthened with all might according to His glorious power.

Hello everyone, and welcome again to Strength to Strength Sisters. I'm Jamila Kurtz, and I am joining you from Kenya, and I'm so glad you're all joining us today as we welcome Dawn Nolte to share with us today from Greece. What an honor to be able to have Dawn with us from Greece. And her topic today is going to be on intentional rest, living in belovedness. You know, many of us find ourselves busy and exhausted, and so I'm looking forward today to hear what God has laid on Dawn's heart, how we can minister to those around us out of fullness rather than scarcity.

I'm also privileged to be able to say that I have that Dawn is a very good friend of mine, and I've learned so much from her. So looking forward to continue that blessing today. A few notes before we begin. This call will be recorded and posted after today, but your face will not be recorded unless you are speaking.

After Dawn is finished speaking, we're looking forward to hearing from you all. If you have any thoughts or questions, we're going to have a session of Q&A, and you can submit your questions through the chat, or you can feel free to ask them yourself.

So before we continue any further, Dawn, I'd like to just pray a prayer of blessing over you as you begin this talk. So let's all just pray together for a few minutes. God, I just thank you so much for this opportunity. And Lord, you know that we've had a few difficulties with the tech, but God, we are calm and we are just waiting and trusting you. And Lord, we are seeking to hear from you today, Lord, from your word. And so Lord, I ask a special blessing on Dawn that you can give her calmness of spirit, Lord, and clarity in her mind, Lord, and also just a clarity as she articulates, Lord, what you've laid on her heart.

Lord, I'm excited and I'm thankful, Lord, we can be your daughters. And then Lord, that we have this opportunity that we can all be together like this. So God, we just want to worship you in this hour. We just ask all this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Okay, Dawn, may God's spirit descend on you. You can go ahead and start. Thank you.

Well, thank you, Jamila, for that introduction. I am really excited to share on this topic today of intentional rest, living in belovedness. It's something I care deeply about, and although I certainly have not arrived and I'm constantly being challenged to return to rest, it's something that I care deeply about and like to talk to others or share this topic with other people as well. So thank you for joining us today.

We just, our family was just in the States about a month ago. We were there for six weeks traveling, nonstop going and doing, which was all good, although not sustainable. And so now that we're back home in Greece, I'm trying to find new rhythms and a healthy rhythm again, I should say, with finding this intentional or being intentional about rest.

So a little bit my heart behind the topic.

For many years, I was a yes person, capable, able to do a lot of things. So people asked me to do a lot of things, and they were good things, but I said yes to almost everything, not quite. And I found myself, like especially like after church on Sunday, somebody would, you know, say, "How are you, Dawn?" or "How's your week been?" My response almost 100% of the time was busy. And all of a sudden, I started hearing myself, and I was saying, "I'm busy. I'm busy."

It was kind of a wake-up call for me that something needed to change. And there were multiple things that led to this journey of intentional rest, but that was one of the beginnings. Plus, there was a deep longing in my heart and my soul for rest and to be giving, like Jamila said, out of a place of abundance and not out of a place of like scarcity and overwhelmedness. And that's sort of where this journey began in my heart behind the topic that we'll be talking about tonight. For me, I guess it's in the afternoon for most of you.

So in speaking about intentional rest today, I'm not just talking about physical rest, although it includes that as well. But most importantly, I'm talking about soul rest. And a description of the soul is the very center of our being that is known by God. It is the core of who you are, made up of inner thoughts, feelings, and longings.

Let me read that to you again. Our soul is the very center of our being that is known by God. It is the core of who you are, made up of inner thoughts, feelings, and longings. So the first part of this, I want to sort of unpack and talk about soul rest and what that looks like and how we can get it. Parker Palmer gave a description of the soul. I was actually driving down the road one time several years ago in Pennsylvania and listening to a podcast, I believe, and the speaker shared this quote by Parker Palmer. And I pulled over to the side of the road and wrote it down because I thought it was just such a unique description.

But this is what he said. Listen to this. He says, "The soul is like a wild animal." Now he's not talking like vicious or that kind of wild, but rather like a deer. So he says, "The soul is like a wild animal, tough, resilient, resourceful, savvy, and self-sufficient.

It knows how to survive in hard places, but it's also shy. Just like a wild animal or like a deer in the forest, it seeks safety in the dense underbrush. If we want to see a wild animal, we know that the last thing we should do is go crashing through the woods yelling for it to come out. But if we will walk quietly into the woods, sit patiently by the base of the tree, and fade into our surroundings, the wild animal we want to see might put in an appearance."

I love that description. I just thought, what a unique picture of our soul. It's inside of us. It's the very center of our being. But maybe it's not something that we see very much of because the rest of our life is too busy and we're crashing around.

So today, I want to talk about rest at a soul level, resting in the belovedness of the Father, and then living out of that place of rest. When Jamila asked me to speak about this topic, she said you can incorporate like maybe avoiding burnout and that kind of thing too. But as I studied this, I thought, you know, I don't think we need to even talk about burnout because if we have a rhythm of real true rest in our life, I don't believe we will burn out. So this is my avoid burnout speech. Anyway, so we've talked about the soul. I would like to define rest since we're talking about intentional rest. Another word for rest is actually sabbath, and sabbath means ceasing.

So we all know the rhythm of work and rest was built into the fabric of creation by God at the very beginning. So why are we so busy, exhausted, and never stop? Do we somehow imagine that God is pleased by our exhaustion or that the busier we are, the more faithful servants we are?

What if we're faithful only when our service is rooted in deep soul rest? Let me ask you that question again. What if we're faithful only when our service is rooted in deep soul rest? Our Western culture, and I believe our Anabaptist culture, devalues non-productive times of being. We're applauded when we do, when we work hard. We're comfortable with noise and busy and conversation.

We are comfortable when we're teaching, preaching. We have study groups, cell groups, Sunday school groups, but we're not so good with silence. How many of you are like really comfortable when you're sitting with people and it's just silent for a space of time? We're not really good with silence. But in order to rest physically and spiritually, we need to get quiet.

Lynn, no, not Lynn, Erica Lane, she said this quote about rest, and she says, "Rest is not idle. It is not wasteful. Sometimes rest is the most productive thing you can do for your body and soul." And I really believe that. I was speaking on this topic a number of years ago, and one of the women in the group during our discussion time, she said, "Yeah," she said, "I don't feel like I have permission to rest at all." And she said, "If I sit down in the afternoon and pick up a book or I'm just resting and somebody would come to the door," she said, "I feel like I would have to jump up and make myself busy quickly to look like I'm busy."

And I was like, "That is not okay if we don't have permission to rest. We need to rest." And like Erica Lane says, "It's not idleness. It's not wasteful. Sometimes it's the most productive thing we can do." Ruth Haley Barton is a woman who has written quite extensively on the topic of rest and sabbath. I can give you some book recommendations at the end if you're interested, but she gave the description of our busy souls being like a jar of river water that's constantly being shaken.

So I went and got, I actually got water from the Aegean Sea, but it was too clear. So this is my water from the sink. So I have rocks, sand, and seagrass from the Aegean Sea in here. So I'm just going to shake this up. This is what she says, "Our soul is like when we're busy. You can't see what's in it. It's a murky, muddy mess." So I'm just going to leave this sit here while we finish our discussion today, and we'll take a look at it at the end.

So there's many places in scripture, and especially in Psalms, where we're told to be silent. We're talking about rest, to sit still, to know God in the silence, and he invites us to this. He doesn't force us. You know, if you get an invitation from a friend to spend time together, it's because your friend actually wants to be with you and wants to see you. And I love that word picture that the Father invites us. God invites us to be with him and to sit with him. He wants to be with us.

And he's waiting just outside the noise and busyness of our lives, inviting us to rest in the quiet, replenishing depths of his presence. I'd like to read some scriptures to you. Listen to the Father's invitation to come and rest. You may want to close your eyes as I read these and just let the words wash over your soul as I read.

"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 soul.

Are you tired, worn out, burned out? Come to me. Get away with me, and you'll recover your life. I will show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me. Watch how I do it.

Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me, and you'll learn to live freely and lightly." This is what the sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says. "In repentance and rest is your salvation.

In quietness and trust is your strength. Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest. I will lead you beside quiet waters. I will restore your soul.

For I satisfy the thirsty and fill the hungry with good things. Be still and know that I am God."

Listening to these scriptures always makes me take a deep breath, and I can just feel like the pressure ease away at his invitation to come and rest. We all need to stop, to get really quiet, to declutter our souls by clearing away all the props, all the noise, and all the distractions, to stop doing and just be in God's presence.

We are, after all, human beings and not human doings. Lynn Babb, who has also written a book called Sabbath Keeping that I really enjoyed, she says, "Only in stopping, really stopping, do we teach our hearts and souls that we are loved apart from what we do."

Did you catch that? Only in stopping do we teach our hearts and souls that we are loved apart from what we do. You know, as long as we're working hard and busy all the time, doing good things and about the Lord's work even, we are in danger of believing that our actions are what's triggering God's love for us. So I'd like to sort of move into talking about the belovedness, living in the belovedness.

What makes you accepted and beloved by the Father? If somebody would ask you, "How do you know? What makes you accepted and beloved?" What would you say to them? It's not what you do. I'm sure you know that. It's who you are. But do you know that you can't do anything to make God love you more than he does right now?

When I first kind of, I don't know, I had that aha moment with this. I was like, "Really? I mean, surely if I, you know, spend more time with him, right? If I, you know, do great things for him, you know, he'll love me more." But no, we can't do anything to make God love us more than he does right now because we are accepted and beloved and we're his.

Here's a question for you to think about. When do you feel the most accepted and loved by God? Is it when you're accomplishing things? Is it when you're, you know, in a good rhythm of spending, you know, regular time with him? Is it when you're laid up on the couch and not getting anything done? When do you feel the most accepted and loved by God?

I want to share a concept that has revolutionized my relationship with God and has been the key, I believe, to being able to truly rest. It was interesting this summer when I was with my mom. We were talking and she said, "You know, in the past number of years, she just noticed that I've become very calm in spirit." And she said, "I want to be like you," which is a big compliment coming from your mom. But I was thinking about that and I thought, as we were talking a little more, I realized that that change, because I wasn't always at a place really of rest in my spirit, but I realized that change happened when I started really grasping this concept that I want to share with you.

So I'm going to see if I can share my screen with you.

Let me move this over. Okay. Can you see that?

Hopefully you can. So this is called the cycle of grace, and this is not new. I was not the one that came up with it. But when this was shared with me, probably, I don't know, five years ago or more, more than that, maybe 10, like I said, it revolutionized how I, my relationship with God. So on my left, I think that's probably your left as well. It's called the cycle of grace.

And it starts, first of all, at number one, but it starts, this is speaking about us as believers. So if you're not a believer, this wouldn't apply to you. But as a believer, the first part of the cycle is acceptance. And that's the place of being accepted, beloved, fully known, and valued by God. And it's because we're his daughters. It's because we're his children. And he loves us. Just like if you're a parent, you love your children unconditionally. You don't always love everything they do, but you love them, and it's because they're yours. And so that's where we begin, where we need to be rooted and grounded is that acceptance of the Father. Then as you're living in acceptance of him, you move down into the second part, which is the sustenance.

And that's like your time spent with him. It's where you're being sustained by the Father. It could be, you know, whatever it is, your quiet time, your relationship with the Father. That's the sustenance part. And then as you're being, you know you're accepted, beloved, you're being sustained by him. And then you realize, number three, that there's significance. You have a calling. He's calling you to do something.

And so you move into that calling. And from there, number four is fruitfulness or works. There's good works and fruit that flows out of your life. But it's all rooted and grounded in that acceptance. So to see how this works, let's look on the other side, the cycle of frustration or the cycle of works. And this is where I lived for many years. And I think all of us have probably, if we've grown up in, yeah, depending on the circle we've grown up in, we might have been at a more works-based, I don't know, society is not the right word, but whatever, in a more works-based group. And so we may have found ourselves in the cycle of frustration, which starts at fruitfulness.

So it's like, you know, you want to have good fruit. You want to be able to, yeah, be fruitful for God. And so you try really hard to be a good Christian and to do all the wonderful things that Christians do and be. And as your fruit is, you know, coming, flowing, you realize, wow, I have a calling. And, you know, there's, you know, I think I've found some, my calling or significance. And moving on into the sustenance, realizing I really need the Lord to be able to produce this fruit. But the last part is what's the missing link in the cycle of frustration because you never really get to number four, and that's the acceptance.

It's like, am I working hard enough? Am I doing enough? Have I spent enough time with him today? Does he really accept me and love me? Am I accepted and loved? I don't know. Maybe I need to work a little harder and do more for him, and then I'll be accepted. And it becomes this vicious cycle of frustration versus the cycle of grace where you can rest in his acceptance and everything else flows out of that. This was, I know it's simple, but this was life-changing for me and has helped me to learn how to live in a place of rest in my spirit and soul. Another way on the bottom half of the page there is to think of it like a tree.

So the roots are the acceptance stage of the cycle. The roots are where you're grounded and rooted in Christ and knowing that you are valued and loved and accepted. And that's where you stay. That's you down there. And then a tree starts forming as the sun and rain, you know, fall on the tree, which you could use, compare it to the sustenance. A tree starts forming and eventually it gets bigger and forms branches and leaves, which would be the significance stage of the cycle. And then eventually fruit starts forming on the tree, but you haven't done anything. The tree doesn't do anything to make that fruit appear. The roots just stay grounded and the tree grows and the fruit appears.

So that's the cycle of grace. And maybe that's helpful for some of you all to think about that. I'm going to stop sharing here.

Let's see if I can go back. Okay.

So who are you when you aren't doing anything significant for God? Who are you when you've just made a mistake or failed? Do you know who you are? You are still beloved, accepted, valued. You are loved by the Father. His love is not conditional when we are in him. We find our sustenance living out of this place of belovedness. You know, we are sustained by prayer and spending time with God, time in his word, solitude, whatever it is. Those are all parts of our walk with him, but none of these things are done to earn his acceptance. Rather, it's just, you know, how our faith grows and how we grow.

In Mark, Jesus, Mark 1 is the story of Jesus' baptism. And after he came out of the water, everyone heard this voice from heaven say, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." And if you think about it, this was before Jesus had started his ministry. He had done zero miracles, no healings, no formal ministry, but yet he was deeply loved by his Father. And I love the thought that when I am in Christ, how God views Jesus is exactly how he views me. So when I am in Christ, I am the beloved of the Father.

That's such an amazing thought. But you know, there's a lot of voices that say we are not good enough, we're not doing enough, and therefore we aren't accepted by God. Our culture around us says that our value is based on our performance. And then if we listen to that, then we're back into that cycle of works and frustration again.

So let's live in that cycle of grace and be rooted and grounded in his love and acceptance of us. God says in Isaiah who we are, this is your identity. Listen to these words from Isaiah 43, verses 1, 2, 4, and 5.

This is what God says about who you are. "Do not fear, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. You are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. When you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.

When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned. You are precious and honored in my sight, and I love you." In Jeremiah 31:3, he says, "I love you with an everlasting love. I have drawn you with unfailing kindness."

And in Zephaniah 3:17, I don't know why this verse still just like startles me every time I read it, but it says, "The Lord rejoices over you with singing." Think about the Lord like, I don't know, I imagine him standing. It says he rejoices over you, so kind of standing above me, singing to me. And it's just an incredible thought that that's how much the Lord loves us and how much he personally cares about each one of us.

As a daughter of the king, you are deeply loved by God, completely forgiven, fully pleasing, totally accepted and complete in him. Amazing. So I wanted us to realize the importance of resting and ceasing from doing, but I also wanted to let God's acceptance settle down deep in our souls before we talk about practical ways to rest at a soul level, because I believe that until you can rest in the Father's belovedness, you're not going to find true rest, even if you practice these things that I want to give you now.

My prayer is that each one of you, if you aren't there, will find that complete rest in him. But let's talk about some intentional ways of resting now. There's three ways that I would like to talk about that I have found bring rest to my busy soul. They are solitude, Sabbath, and prayer.

So let's talk about solitude first and silence. Solitude is an opportunity to break away from the cycle of noise and busyness so we can hear our soul's longing, or like Parker Palmer said, so our soul can come out of the trees.

But solitude isn't an end in itself, and it's not a spa for our emotions. You know, there's a lot of stuff out there right now about soul care on a, on a like a selfish level. That's not what we're talking about today. This is talking about rest for our souls. And solitude is a way to create time and space in our life that we can sit with our questions. We can wait on God to hear what he wants to say to us and do what's needed in our soul.

To sit in silence and wait to hear the still small voice of the Father. And I believe that we need solitude as a rhythm in our life to keep our soul at rest. Maybe some of us get more solitude than others. I'm sure if you're an empty nester, maybe you get a lot of solitude. Some of us who are moms and are always surrounded by people and children do not get solitude very often unless we're very intentional about it.

If you're single and you may have more time now to have spaces of solitude, or your life may be very busy with serving others or your work. So I believe though it is a rhythm that we need to keep our soul at rest. Some of us may just need to work harder at finding it than others.

I'd like to look at two men in scripture who sought out solitude. The first example is of Elijah in 1 Kings 19. I'll just kind of tell you the story. So the story takes place right after the great victory on Mount Carmel when the fire came down from heaven, consumed everything, and all the prophets of Baal were killed. And then Jezebel, the wicked queen, came and sent a message to Elijah saying that he's going to be killed. And he was like afraid. So he went a day's journey into the wilderness, which is seeking solitude. And there he sat under a broom tree. And scripture says he prayed that God would take his life. He was basically in despair and went to sleep.

And an angel came and touched him and woke him up and showed him food that he had prepared. So Elijah ate, went back to sleep. Again, the angel woke him, gave him more food, and told him, "You're going to need it because the journey ahead of you is too great." So he actually was strengthened by that food for 40 days and nights as he traveled deep into the land of Horeb to Mount Sinai.

And there Elijah came to a cave and spent the night. And while he was in that cave, the Lord came to him. And the Lord said, "Elijah, what are you doing here?" And I just, I don't know, I just picture, you know, Elijah's gone 40 days and nights. He has gone like really far into the desert seeking solitude. Maybe he was, because he was afraid of his for his life, he was trying to get away. But the Lord asked him, "Elijah, what are you doing here?" And so he explained to God that he had served God and the people of Israel hadn't, and he had killed all the prophets and he's the only one left.

And anyway, God said, "Okay, stand on the mountain and the presence of the Lord is going to pass by." So I'm sure we're all very familiar with this story, but a powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks, but the Lord was not in the wind. And then an earthquake came.

And scripture says the Lord was not in the earthquake. And then a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. After that came silence and a still small voice, a gentle whisper, and it was the voice of the Lord. And that's when God spoke to Elijah and told him what to do next.

So there's a lot of things I'm sure we could learn from this story, but the two things that I want us to see are that are the solitude and the silence. So Elijah was pretty desperate for solitude, traveling 40 days and nights out in the wilderness. Have you ever felt that desperation? I know I have. Sometimes I'm like, "I need to get by myself. I just need solitude." Like I said, different stages of life are in. We may feel that need more sometimes than others. But his desperation tells me that it's okay and it's important to find solitude and seek it out. We may need to take extreme measures to find a season of solitude from time to time, and that's okay.

The second thing I see in this story is that God speaks when things get quiet. And I really believe we need to unplug and withdraw from all the noisy people, places, technology in our lives from time to time to hear God speak. It could be a day, it could be an hour, it could be a few moments of silence, but I believe we need silence to hear him. Emptying our souls is, this is not, this is a quote, and I didn't write it down who it came from, so I'm not sure who it is, but they said emptying our souls is a prerequisite for being filled.

So it's like the jar of the water with, you have to get like, this isn't empty, but still in order for the presence of God to be able to, for God to speak. And emptying our souls is a prerequisite. If it's already full and busy, you know, how's God going to be able to speak to you or be there? But the presence of God is poured out most generously when there's an empty space to receive him. When our soul is empty, not empty of, you know, the good, the who we are empty, but empty of all the distractions, and there's finally space for God. It's an emptiness that's full of expectant alertness. There's a lot of scriptures actually that speak about waiting on the Lord expectantly, being silent in his presence.

And when that emptiness is filled, then we're ready to give out to our friends and family from, you know, the place of fullness and abundance. The other man in scripture who sought out solitude is Jesus. In Luke 4, he was spending a busy day in Capernaum teaching in the synagogue. He had healed Simon's mother-in-law and many sick and diseased people who came to him that evening. And then scripture says that early the next morning, Jesus went out to an isolated place in a place of solitude.

Again, in Luke 5, when vast crowds came to hear Jesus preach and be healed, scripture says again that Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer. If Jesus needed solitude and silence, how much more do we need it as well?

So let's talk about solitude. Some practical ways to experience solitude. One way is when you have unexpected time in your day, like waiting for a doctor at a, like a doctor appointment, if you're waiting, maybe a delay if you went to pick something up or someone up and they're not ready, or yeah, some kind of delay where you're just sitting and waiting, or maybe an illness if you're not like severely ill.

Use those opportunities to turn to God and enjoy that gift of the moment to be with him rather than pick up your phone and scroll. Like it's so easy to do and everybody else in the waiting room, wherever you are, is doing it. But what an opportunity to just use small moments like that to just practice solitude and enjoy God's presence.

Another idea to incorporate solitude into your day is just sprinkle throughout the day moments where you stop and take a couple deep breaths and just prayer, pray, a prayer of gratitude. There's something about taking deep cleansing breaths actually that like physically does something to your body, brings rest and the tension and the pressure eases away. So periodically throughout your day, it doesn't have to be when you're in a moment of stress, just stop, take some deep breaths and just pray, breathe a prayer of gratitude to the Father. Or sitting in silence in God's presence and just being. I don't know if you've ever done this before.

We were at a training one time and they said, "Okay, your next assignment," I forget if it was, I think 30 minutes maybe or more. It was a long time. They said, "We want you to each go away alone and we want you to sit in God's presence and just be. You're not supposed to expect anything, you know, amazing to happen necessarily or try to make anything happen. We just want you to sit still and be in God's presence."

Scripture does say, "Be still and know that I am God." I don't know if you've done this. If you haven't, it feels like a long time when you're just sitting there and your mind starts to wander, wander, not wonder, maybe wonder as well, but it can be a challenge. Your inner thoughts and, and yeah, you struggle to like quiet your mind long enough to really give your attention to God. And that's normal because we live in such a busy, fast-paced world that we are not used to sitting in silence.

So try it, see what it's like. If you're sitting there and your mind keeps straying to like the daily duties or your to-do list, don't let that discourage you. Just write them down on a piece of paper, release them to the Lord in prayer, and just keep sitting there with the Lord and show yourself grace.

If it's something that you haven't done before, it may feel awkward or strange at the beginning, but just sit there and bask in the fact that you are sitting with your Father, you're beloved and accepted by him. He knows you, he values you, not for what you do, but who you are, and just sit still and know that I am God.

Another, this is a bigger way to practice solitude is to take like a solo retreat or like a day away. And like I said, as a mom, that's really hard to do. And I've only done it a few times in my life, but every time it has been such an amazing experience. So even if you live a busy life and are a busy mom, if you are able to do this, it does take intention. And that's why we're talking about intentional rest. It will never happen if you wait for it to just happen.

But I'd like to give you some ideas of what you could do on a solo retreat. So if you have a pen and paper, maybe you want to jot them down. But first of all, obviously find a quiet place alone. One of my best memories of doing this is there was a Christian woman in Pennsylvania who had a tea room and she rented her one space out to people to spend time there. So I reserved it for an afternoon and she brought me, it was a beautiful space, just very peaceful and lovely. And she brought tea in at the beginning and then she actually, the tea house was closed. So I was, and she left.

I was actually there alone all afternoon in the building. But it was such a lovely, beautiful time. So find a place that's going to be restful for you. Maybe it's not a place like that. Maybe it's going to a lake or a pond or something and just sitting there. But take with you your Bible, a journal, maybe a blanket or a chair to get comfortable. If you're going to be gone for the day, make yourself a special healthy lunch. If you're like me and you like candles, take a candle along, your tea, whatever, you know, whatever you choose to spend your day, but get comfortable and just when you get there, again, take deep breaths and just rest in God's presence.

Practice your stillness before him. Obviously, prayer is something you'll want to do throughout the day. Something that's, especially if you're doing a long retreat day like that, a whole day, it's actually important to take breaks physically to get active, to go on walks or, you know, do stretches or jumping jacks or something because we're body, soul, and spirit, and it's all intertwined. So doing something active when you're spending a whole day like that is really important. Maybe take a nap, like the story of Elijah. Sometimes what we need the most is sleep, especially if you're a mom with infants or young children and you're getting up at night or just really exhausted. There is no shame in taking a nap.

And yeah, sometimes that's what we need the most. Another thing to do on a solo retreat like that is to be creative. So I believe God is God is the creator and he created, of course, the world and all the beauty in it. And then he created man and woman. And it says that he made us in his image. And I believe that one of the ways we are like him is that he made us to be creative. And he loves to see us create things. But sadly, due to our hurried lives and the busyness that robs us of, you know, sleep and exercise and being intentional, we often don't have times to be creative.

So if you take a solo day, use your solitude as a time to create something. If you're artistic, you can paint or draw. If you're a writer, you can write a poem or, you know, write something. If you play an instrument, you could play music. You could handwrite encouraging notes to friends. I like watercoloring cards and then using them to write notes to people, whatever it is. But yeah, be creative and enjoy, yeah, that part of who you are and being like him. Of course, reading scripture and spending time in the word on a day like that would be very encouraging and reflecting on what you've read, responding to what God is speaking in your heart.

If you write it down, I found, you know, if the Lord's speaking something to me, to write it down in my journal. And it's so encouraging to go back later and to see how God spoke and what he's saying.

So those are some ideas. And maybe some of you have more at the end to share about solitude. So the second way to find soul rest, to be intentional with rest is the concept of Sabbath or ceasing. So a real Sabbath is not just ceasing from your work, but it's also ceasing from worry and from trying to accomplish something. So that takes Sabbath to a whole new level because we can all probably just, you know, not do a lot of work in a day, but to cease from worry and accomplishing and, you know, thinking about what you're doing next, that's a whole new level of Sabbath. We probably all take Sunday off from our normal workday, but is it actually a day of ceasing for you?

I know for, you know, for me, Sunday isn't necessarily the most restful day of the week. And especially if you're in ministry or doing hospitality, you can actually work really hard and it's not necessarily, it could be a life-giving day, but not a restful day. So you may need to find a different day for your Sabbath. And it also may be a different day for you than for your husband, especially if you have children. One couple I heard about, he takes his Sabbath on Monday and his wife took her Sabbath on Sunday. They had little children. And that way, each of them could actually have a true day of rest.

When we take Sabbath, it's a time to reflect and to look at your week and see, you know, how God's been at work in your week. And it's also a day of refreshment. So what refreshes you is very different probably than what refreshes maybe even your spouse or your children. So whatever it is that's refreshing for you, whether it's a walk or reading, journaling, going outside in nature. One person I know, she on her Sabbath day, she doesn't cook. So her day isn't a Sunday. It's one of the days of the week. And so she'll make sure that she has done some things ahead the day before so that she doesn't have to cook. And it's amazing when you don't cook how much extra time you have and how restful, for me anyway, how restful that feels.

So maybe it's thinking ahead with your meals so you don't have to cook on your Sabbath day. Or maybe it's, you know, spending, putting it on your calendar to spend some time with friends or what's rest and ceasing for one person, like I said, may not be the same for another. So only you know what's restful for you. And a whole Sabbath day may look impossible. Although I have heard the testimony of someone who said they were, this person had a job, was working and basically around the clock. They were in ministry and stuff too, so just working all the time. And when they felt like the Lord was asking them to take a real Sabbath, they were like, "How am I ever going to get all my stuff done?

I am barely getting everything done with the seven days a week that I'm working with ministry and work." But they decided to do it. And they said that they got more done in their six days of work and one day of Sabbath than they did in their seven days of working. So I think God knew what he was doing when he put that rest in place from the very beginning.

You know, like I said, we're in different seasons. We might not be able to take a whole day, but maybe consider taking a Sabbath hour every day. I really like this idea. And this is one of the things that I would like to be more intentional about in my own life is to set aside a Sabbath hour. And so this is a time where one friend I know, she said that she makes tea and she sits down with her children and they read poetry together, read something and drink tea and they just rest.

And another mom that I know, she has her children take their own quiet times and then she uses that hour, whatever her timeframe is, to, yeah, drink her tea or coffee and have a little pastry or something, just, you know, herself to just sit and rest and read or drink in the silence, whatever it is. So your Sabbath may not be an entire day, but I think it's important to have a rhythm of Sabbath in your life, whether that means it's an hour every day or whether it's a whole day. I think Sabbath is really important. And I think God put it into the first seven days of creation for a good reason.

So the third way to experience soul rest is through prayer. Prayer isn't just communicating with God. It's also communing with God. I like to begin prayer with sitting in God's presence and again, lingering on the thought and the fact, the truth that I am beloved and accepted and known by him.

Sometimes I ask myself the question that God asked Elijah when, remember when Elijah was in the cave and God came to him and said, "Elijah," I mean, I don't know how he said it, but "Elijah, what are you doing here?" I like to ask myself that question when I'm sitting with the, sitting there before the Lord or with the Lord to say, "Dawn, what are you doing here?

Why are you here? What is your, what is my soul?" Or talking to myself, "What is your soul longing that you're bringing to God? What are you doing here?" It's a good question to ask to make you think about what is it that I really am asking God about. Sometimes to have questions in front of you can help you know what to pray about. I don't know if it's like this for you, but sometimes I find myself kind of falling into a rhythm or a pattern of kind of praying the same way or for the same things. So sometimes to have questions like, "What is the condition of my soul these days?" And to sit and think about that and can that can lead you into prayer.

Or where do I hurt? Or where am I celebrating and being filled with joy that can lead you into, you know, prayers of praise and thanksgiving? If you ask the question, "Where do I hurt?" It might lead you into supplication or other kinds of prayer. Another way to come into prayer is to pray the Lord's prayer phrase by phrase and really just ponder, you know, what you're praying, what you're saying to the Lord. Or simply sit in silence and invite the Holy Spirit to speak to you.