He Restores
We have to choose to follow our Shepherd in order for Him to restore our souls.
Little boys need to run outside, amen? I've found that when I take my boy for a walk in the great outdoors, he is a much happier and better little boy. But I'm a fast walker, and although he is a tall and strong, testosterone-fueled four-year-old, he can sometimes get tired on our walks. He begins taking slow shuffling steps, stubborn and dramatic. So once, in a stroke of inspiration, I asked him, "Do you need me to charge your batteries?" Now, you have to know that this kid lives for batteries and engines and generators and electrical wonders of all kinds, so when I asked him that, his eyes just lit up. So I took his little hand in mine and squeezed about ten times in quick succession, all the while making the best electrical charge sound I could, and then I said, “Ok, all charged up!” And that boy grinned his biggest adorable grin, revved up his engine, and ran all the way home, fueled by his mother's love. He was recharged by my love expressed in holding his hand, being silly with him, and speaking his mechanical love language.
So my question to you today is, how do you recharge your batteries?
Motherhood can be exhausting, discouraging, demanding, and wearying. We crave comfort and rest and peace and refreshment. Our culture tells us to prioritize "me-time" or to make sure we care for ourselves before we care for others, because, after all, they say "you can't pour from an empty cup!"
Perhaps that has a measure of truth in it, but I think we are often misled about what will fill us up. Is it chocolate? Coffee? Buying a little something pretty to boost our mood? A pedicure?
Do those things really fill us up?
We need to make a distinction between “self-care” and “soul-care.”
In her excellent book on motherhood, M is for Mama, Abbie Halberstadt says, "When we grasp at our culture's version of self-care as the ultimate remedy for our woes, we discount the fact that the very God of the universe was the one who gave us a love for really good books or bubble baths. We miss the fact that both our souls and our physical selves are in his tender care every moment of every day" (p. 69).
Here's the beautiful truth: we don't have to worry so much about whether or not we'll be taken care of, whether or not our needs will be met, or how we should go about that elusive "self-care," because we have a God who is the master of soul-care. He restores our souls.
How, you ask? Let’s dive into this three-part blog series on the way God cares for the souls of moms as we care for our little ones.
Do you have a collection? Something that everyone knows is the perfect thing to buy you for your birthday? Something you look for on every family vacation to get as a memento? Something you can’t say no to when you find it at a thrift store?
My Grandma Spoelstra had a collection – she collected sheep. Sheep pictures, sheep figurines, sheep mugs, sheep stuffed animals, sheep handtowels, etc. My brothers and I loved to walk through her house when we visited and try to count all the sheep. Why sheep, you ask? My grandma had been through much heartache in her life - she never knew her real father, she grew up with very little, she lost her thirteen-year-old daughter to a bicycle accident, she lost her husband to divorce. And through all this she had come to see that God alone is the one she could depend on to faithfully provide for her. She collected sheep because she identified God as her Shepherd.
She had come to a soul-deep realization of the truth that when life is hardest, we need the Shepherd most.
“When life is hardest, we need the Shepherd most.”
So as we consider the concept of “soul care,” let’s look at the very-familiar Psalm 23 through the eyes of motherhood. How does God restore our souls?
This beloved psalm begins with the line:
“The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.”
Nothing! Not strength or joy or hope or coffee or peace or anything else. He provides all we need to do the job he has called us to do.
Who is our Shepherd? How would you describe him? Who do you know Him to be? He is faithful, good, kind, wise, powerful, just, and tender toward us.
This theme of God as our Shepherd is the lifeline of peace for our souls, as described in Chapter 1 of Brighter: “When you remember that the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for you is the one leading, protecting, and carrying you, your heart can rest in abundant peace” (p. 24-5).
Because HE is our shepherd, we can be sure that we lack nothing we truly need.
2 Peter 1:3 tells us that "His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him we called us by his own glory and goodness.”
He has not promised He will give us all the things we desire for our own comfort and ease. He has not promised the road will be easy or free from challenges. Instead, He has promised that when we turn our eyes to our Shepherd, He will guide us, provide peace for us, and restore our souls.
This brings us to the next line of Psalm 23:
“He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul.”
That sounds idyllic, but does it reflect your daily life? Do you feel at peace in your motherhood?
I’ve learned that we have to choose to follow our Shepherd in order for Him to restore our souls.
A slight alteration of an old saying can give us this truth: “You can lead a sheep to living water, but you can’t make her drink.” In order to enjoy those green pastures and quiet waters, we must allow ourselves to be led. We must hear the voice of our Shepherd and choose to obey His calling. In John 10:4, Jesus says, "When he [the Good Shepherd] has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice."
“You can lead a sheep to Living Water, but you can’t make her drink.”
Do you know your Savior's voice? Do you hear him calling you to the green pastures and quiet waters?
The green pastures are His Word that is our daily bread, that nourishes our souls and fills us up with praise and purpose. The quiet waters are His presence as we sit with Him in prayer and soak in His love and conviction.
Isaiah 30:19 says, "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, but you would have none of it."
Isn't that heartbreaking? Too often, we settle for thistles and mud instead of Living Water and the Bread of Life, because we are unwilling to follow our Shepherd’s voice.
“Too often, we settle for thistles and mud instead of Living Water and the Bread of Life, because we are unwilling to follow our Shepherd’s voice.”
Children often think they know better than their parents, don't they? They don't want to hold hands in the parking lot, they fight sleep when they’re exhausted, they refuse to eat that grilled cheese sandwich because you cut it in fourths and they wanted it whole. Aren’t we so much like them? Do we turn to the Lord in prayer and in His Word when we need comfort and filling up? Or do we turn to Instagram or coffee or ice cream or binging Netflix or online shopping or any of the other things that the world applauds as doing what makes you happy? When we have a miraculous free hour when all the kids are sleeping, do we choose the easy thing or the more challenging and more glorious one? We are invited to spend time with the Lord and to soak in His Word, and instead we often choose something far more shallow.
This is not to say we should never go for a run or take a hot shower or take a nap or drink some coffee and read a book just for enjoyment. God has created all good things for us to enjoy. But when we consistently choose these comforts and pleasures rather than hearing our Shepherd’s voice and following him to the green pastures He has provided for us, we will find ourselves feeling empty rather than filled to the soul’s brim and restored from the inside out.
In the same chapter of M is for Mama, Halberstadt states, "Time with the Lord recharges my batteries. On days that feel too full of everything else to fit in "me-time," choosing to prioritize time spent with him fills me up in a way no other form of self-care could" (p. 61).
The life of faith is one small decision to follow our Good Shepherd at a time. One small decision like, today when the kids take their nap, I’m going to break my habit of scrolling social media and Amazon deals and instead make some coffee, open the Bible, and spend some time by the shores of the Living Waters. One small decision like, tomorrow morning, I’m going to wake up half an hour before the children do so that I can spend time with my Father and let Him prepare me for the day.
We have to choose to follow our Shepherd in order for Him to restore our souls.
Perhaps you find it difficult to get quiet time with the Lord because your house is never really, well, quiet. I completely understand the frustration of intending to wake up earlier than the kids so you can have some quiet time, only to find one of them has beat both me and the sun and is outside in the dawn, singing Frozen to the chickens at the top of his lungs. If you are having difficulty finding time to spend in God's Word, I've got a whole post full of ideas to help you get into the Word. I hope one or two of these ideas is helpful to you!
How else does our Shepherd lead us? That’s what we’ll consider next week.
