Are you nestled in your home? God wants you to nest, rest, and invest in your home. He made the home for you. He created the home for you to raise your children. Before God created Eve, He first prepared the home for her. When she woke up to life, she was in her delightful home of Eden. Adam had already been created before the home, but not the woman!
Whenever God talks about the home, he invariably uses the Hebrew word "yashab." It means "to sit down, to dwell, to remain, to settle, to continue, to abide, to keep house." That doesn't sound like gadding about everywhere, does it? Interestingly, the Geneva Bible of Titus 2:5 where it tells us to be "keepers at home" describes this phrase as "not gadding up and down."
In Hosea 11:11 God uses the word "yashab" and says: "I will settle them in their own homes, declares the LORD." Are you settled and nestled?
The KNOX translation says: "In in their own home, the Lord says, I will give them rest." Are you feeling overwhelmed? Are you running ragged? Too much to do? God always has the answer. Stop running around so much. Come back home. In your own home God gives you rest.
It's not only we who get tense and stressed out. Our children do too. When we hustle them around to go to this place and that they also get restless and upset. Did you notice one of the meanings of "yashab" is to "sit down." The Young's Literal translation of Psalm 113:9 renders it literally: "Causing the barren one of the house to SIT, a joyful mother of sons." Even in the home we can be so busy running around that we don't take time to SIT DOWN with our children.
Children need mothers to SIT DOWN! When your little ones get out of control, instead of screaming at them and feeling you are going crazy, stop what you are doing and say, "Come, let's sit on the sofa and have a story." Grab your baby to nurse and gather your little ones all around you and read some stories to them until they are all relaxed and settled. They will then be ready to play happily again. I did this many times a day. There's nothing like sitting down with your little ones to bring peace and calm. And you become calm in the process too.
Take time to sit with your older ones to talk to them too. You mother much better sitting down than running around the house doing all your own projects! Remember, you are a mother before everything else you do. This is your highest priority.
Love and blessings from Nancy Campbell
Painting: "The Alphabet" * Pierre Auguste Renoir (1897).