Welcome to the Faithful Mother’s Podcast. My name is Kate Isaak and my goal is simple, to bring you to the feet of Jesus in your marriage and motherhood and encourage you to cultivate a faithful heart and home. I want to help you overcome overwhelm and distraction, keep your eyes focused on the Lord and equip you for the everyday challenges motherhood entails.

 

I pray this episode blesses you.

 

Welcome back to the Faithful Mother’s Podcast. I am your host, Kate Isaac. This podcast is for Christian moms striving for peace, joy, and purpose. And of course, more Jesus in our lives. So thank you so much for spending a little bit of your time with me today. Today’s episode is all about finding the right balance between productivity and rest.

 

And I think this is a little bit of a hot topic for moms in this day and age. For me personally, one of the best feelings in the world is feeling like I had a very productive day. I love being productive. I love the idea of productivity. I love the idea of not wasting my life. I love the idea of living a full and busy and wonderful life.

 

But in saying that there’s the other side of things we’re trying to be too productive and trying to jam too much in. Can lead us to burnout and there is a biblical mandate to rest. So let’s dive in a little bit more into that topic. As Christian moms, we often juggle many responsibilities and it’s really easy to feel overwhelmed.

 

You know, we have our families to take care of. You may work full time, you may work part time, you may work from home. We often have responsibilities within our church, whether you volunteer or serve part time or even full time in ministry, you may be involved in youth group, I don’t, I’m not sure what it is for you, but I know as Christian moms, we often juggle a lot.

 

And we’re going to explore how to stay productive, but also embrace the rest that God intends for us. So we need to start with understanding biblical rest, and it is foundational, guys. It’s right in the beginning of the Bible. God rested on the seventh day. He set the precedent for rest. One of my favorite verses in the Bible, especially this year, it’s, it’s just really spoke to my heart is Matthew 11, 28 to 30, where Jesus says, come to him.

 

If we’re burdened, his yoke is easy. He invites us to find rest in him. And rest is not just not working, but rest is abiding with him and bringing our all to him and surrendering to him and finding our rest in him. Rest is not just physical, it’s spiritual, it’s emotional. And I think the idea of Sabbath has gone through a little bit of a roller coaster.

 

People really valued it at one point, then it became kind of a legalistic thing. And I think now in today’s age, what I’m seeing is people really trying to invite that idea of Sabbath. back into their lives and really honoring it in the way that God intended it to be. I think the more intentional we can be in our Sabbath and preparing for our Sabbath, the more it does for us.

 

And Sabbath is not. Just vegging out on Netflix all day and not working. Sabbath, like I said, is intentional rest with Jesus. I think the modern mom today falls into this productivity trap. We have a pressure like never before to do it all. There is this societal expectation, this pressure to be constantly productive.

 

The impact of social media in comparison has just blown this pressure up so much more for the modern mom than it ever has before. We see moms making the perfect meals. We see moms keeping their house perfectly clean. We see moms making the most adorable lunch boxes with little cutout characters with their cucumber.

 

We see all the afterschool activities and you know, It’s just all so much and it can seem like when we’re scrolling through and we’re seeing these moms that all of these moms are doing all of the things, but can I just encourage you that they’re probably only doing one of those things really, really well.

 

It is impossible to do all of those things really, really well. And. Look, this is coming from somebody who loves to achieve excellence in my life and loves to find a balance and loves to do as many things as well as possible. But the more and more I have gone on in my motherhood, the more I realized that, that balance, true balance is non existent.

 

There’s always going to be something laid down so something can be elevated. And I remember you’ve maybe heard of the idea of spinning all the plates in the air or holding all the balls in the air, juggling all the balls. And I don’t know where I first heard this, actually, my friend, I don’t know where she heard it from.

 

I heard it from her. Um, years ago in a women’s ministry thing that I was doing, but the balls, what balls are glass and what balls are plastic, what balls can bounce if you drop them, what balls can be laid back down, laid down easily to be picked back up and what balls are glass. And as a Christian mom, I would encourage you that God, your husband and your children, those are the glass balls.

 

Everything else is plastic. Everything else can be laid down at some point. Everything else can bounce if it and will be able to be picked back up. It might be a little bit of like chasing after the balls to pick them back up to get them where you want to be in your life. But true balance and keeping all those balls held up in the air, it’s an impossible thing and we need to stop striving for it.

 

And we need to stop comparing ourselves to the other moms on social media. As much as I try to meal plan and prep and provide good healthy meals for my family, I drop the ball in this area a lot. I certainly don’t have time to be cutting out cute little cucumber shapes. If I just get the cucumbers into my kids, I’m happy.

 

So, uh, I just want to encourage you to be careful what you are consuming on social media. I have come to a place where I’ve really loved the feed that I’ve cultivated on Instagram and I don’t mind spending time in there because 90 percent of it is verses or biblical truth, biblical wisdom from other Christian content creators.

 

Um, um, I don’t follow a lot of like high comparison. My house is beautiful, you know, beautifully designed. There’s not messy floors or messy toys. Look, I love cleanliness and order in my house. I also have two tornadoes also known as children who completely destroy things and two dogs. And I live in a tropical environment with indoor outdoor and there’s dirt and mud and bugs being tracked in all of the time.

 

I cannot expect to have a 100 percent clean house. Eat off the floor, clean house all of the time. I would just go insane if that was my expectation. I appreciate the cleanliness. I appreciate order and organization. I need that for my brain to function well in order for me to be a calm, patient, peaceful mom.

 

I need to have an environment that supports that. So that is certainly important to me, but we also live there and I’m okay with that. And my house is never going to look like we don’t live there because we live there. We do a lot of living in our home. We are here a lot as a family. So. I just want to encourage you right now.

 

If you, if there’s anything coming to mind, like a social media account that makes you feel envy, just stop following them. It is not healthy for you. It’s not healthy for you, especially in certain stages and seasons of life. So that leads us to the idea of recognizing burnout in your life. This is the first thing that I noticed for me.

 

Is I start getting short and snappy with my kids. I start getting easily irritated with my husband. Those are signs of burnout for me because when I am trying to do too much and I’m feeling overwhelmed because I’m not accomplishing all the things I know, A, that I’m not abiding in Jesus enough. B, that I’m trying to hold too many balls.

 

And not let any of them down and see my priorities are out of whack because my priorities are always God, my husband and my kids. So if I’m being irritated and snappy with them, then obviously my priorities are out of whack because that doesn’t align with the mom that I want to be. That doesn’t align with the values that I have for me and my motherhood.

 

So recognizing burnout is very, very important. So irritability. getting easily stressed out, feeling overwhelmed, feeling anxious. Those are all signs of burnout. Also feeling tired, feeling like really low energy. Those are signs of burnout as well. So if you’re starting to feel any of these symptoms, I want you just to take a second and do a brain dump.

 

and write out first of all, all of your emotions and your feelings and how you’re feeling and why you think you’re feeling them. I want you to write out all the things that you’re trying to accomplish right now. And sometimes just getting them out of our head and onto paper makes us realize, okay, you know what?

 

I’m trying to be productive in too many things. I’m trying to pick up too many balls in this moment. What is actually important? Where are my priorities and how do I need to realign? Realigning has become a big word for me because I set values. I want to be very intentional in how I live my life, but life happens and realigning has become very important to me in my marriage and in my motherhood.

 

So just always come back to your priorities. Identify when you’re feeling burned out. Identify what truly matters, your faith, your family, your personal well being. Those are the things that truly matter. Trying to make more money or trying to go on a vacation or trying to organize all of the sports and trying to make sure all of your kids have everything that they need at every exact moment.

 

We need to drop some of it. We can’t allow ourselves to get overwhelmed, to get distracted, to get away from abiding in the Lord. So I want to encourage you to use tools. We have so many tools available to us in this day and age. First and foremost, the number one tool for life. If you’re not reading it regularly, please sister, let me encourage you to get back into it.

 

Pick up a Bible study. Even if it’s just one on an app, the, um, you version Bible app. There’s great studies all along there. Personally, I like a paper study right now. I’m doing, uh, encountering God by Kelly Minter. I’m doing that Bible study. I’m studying. I’m really enjoying that one right now. It’s all stuff I’ve done and known and learned before, but it’s just bringing you back to the basics of what are the spiritual disciplines that matter to me as a Christian woman.

 

Um, so I’m really enjoying that one right now, but use things like planners and journals to organize all of your tasks. For me, there’s this little quote, I’m going to butcher it right now, but an hour spent planning is like four hours saved because when we’re intentional, we actually plan out things.

 

We’re not going to be overwhelmed. We’re going to easily be able to flow through our tasks when we see them laid out in front of us. So take advantage, use planners and journals. My brain, I am a, I have ADHD. I want to do everything and more all of the time. And take on a thousand things and then travel all around the world while I’m doing it.

 

That is the way that my brain works. So I have created tools to help me stay focused, to help me remove overwhelm and distraction in my life. I have my dream with God planner. I’m going to leave all of these things linked down below. They may help you. If they don’t help you, there’s Another tool out there that will help you.

 

Um, I also wanted to mention our family meeting planner that has been phenomenal in our family communication in aligning our values because we put our verse in and we memorize it every week in, um, how we care for our home because everybody knows their expectations for chores. It’s already predetermined.

 

So there’s no nagging. It’s just It’s limited like the stress and the just like bickering in our home about doing chores. It’s helped us to realign our attitudes because we intentionally have discussion points that we talk about each week. So the family meeting planner, that’s a great tool. Um, the heartfelt conversations journal, this is a recent journal that I’ve created that we’ve been doing with my kids and it has.

 

It’s a questions in it and it actually has space to answer them for five years in a row. So it’s a great journal to use with your kids and to go back year after year to see how your family has grown. It’s a really beautiful tool as well. So just There’s tools out there to help you take advantage of them.

 

And in saying that, when you are planning, when you are creating your schedule, you need to create a flexible schedule. The importance of flexibility in a family schedule is vital. This allows for both productivity, but also rest. I want you to schedule in when you rest. Sundays for us is rest. Sometimes we go to the beach because we live close to the Pacific Ocean now.

 

Um, and we make that intentional to rest. It could just be resting around the house, but we do not plan anything for Sundays. That is when we rest. We have church in the morning, that’s it. And then we spend the rest of the day resting and we are intentional about that rest. Also, I know if I’ve had a lot of really busy, like Fridays and Saturdays, busy weekends, like I just need a weekend where I’m not going to plan a lot.

 

And I look at that in my calendar. Okay. This, these two weekends are busy. That weekend I’m going to be intentional about not scheduling anything and bring your kids into this. This again is why that family meeting is so important. We look at our schedule. What do we have coming up? What are all the things that need to be accomplished as a family?

 

And what, how can we delegate? And how can our kids help with some of those things? Especially if you have older kids or a larger family, your kids can help. Don’t take all of these things on you as the mom. Our husbands are often so willing. My husband, I know he’s always willing to help me, but I am the manager of our home and because I do it well for the most part, he just expects that I take on that role and I do it well.

 

So sometimes I just need to say, Hey, this, this, and this needs to be done. And I need to delegate that to him. And he does it, but he doesn’t always see it or always naturally pick up. As much as I would want him to notice, Oh, the paint is really, Chipping here. It needs to be repainted. He’s not always going to notice those things.

 

He’s out of the house He’s not home as much as I am. So I just need to mention it to him and he will do it for me So just being communicating well with your husband communicating your needs communicating things that are feeling overwhelmed Um, and Communicating things that need to be done in order for you to feel productive, but also allow time for rest.

 

And while we’re discussing that, let’s quickly talk about self care. When we’re trying to maintain all of these things, maintaining a productive life, but also balancing the rest, we need to make sure we have time for self care. Every few Saturdays, I call it my like deep shower day. I don’t know. I think I need a better name for it, but it’s like, okay, I spend a really long time in the shower doing, you know, an extra mask on my hair, exfoliating my face, repainting my toenails and, you know, doing a face mask, but just all of those things that I will neglect.

 

And again, this is like personal hygiene self care, but there’s also like making sure I’m doing time to read. I have recently started listening to more audio books. My little guy still needs me to go to sleep and I didn’t have this with my girls, but I am embracing this with my younger one, as difficult as it is, because I think about all the things that I could be doing in that time, sometimes an hour it takes for me to lay with him for him to fall asleep.

 

But I am taking that time now to listen to audible books, or I listened to Bible meditations during this time, but I’m, I’m being productive in a restful way. It’s a forced rest for me because I’m literally laying in bed there with him. But I am intaking something into my brain that either is going to help me achieve my goals.

 

It’s going to help me abide in Christ. I’m going to settle my own mind for sleep, like doing a Bible meditation or sleep meditation for nighttime. All of these things are important. Journaling. If I don’t journal regularly, I feel it. I’m like, Oh, I need to go journal. I need to get these thoughts out of my head.

 

Time with friends, time to not be a mom and be responsible for everything. All of these things are so important. And I find when we’re trying to be productive, we’re trying to be the best moms that we can be so many of those things just easily. Go by the wayside. We forget about the self care. We forget about the soul care and we’re just go, go, go, go, go.

 

So make sure you schedule in those things, whether it’s your deep Saturday shower or whatever. Like I said, I need a better name for it, but I’m just like, okay, you know, one Saturday a month, I’m gonna take a really long time in the shower. My family knows like this is mom’s time to just like take, no, I’m not gonna be painting all your nails because I’ll, of course, if I pull out the nail polish, all my daughters want their nails done too.

 

But it’s like, no, mom is just going to take this time to take care of her body. Cause I don’t. Do it on the regular. So I’m going to do it then. And then while I’m saying all of this, this may sound like, okay, control, control, control, control, plan, plan, plan, plan. But there’s just so much beauty in surrender.

 

I think I’ve talked about this recently, maybe not in, not on the podcast, just in real life, but my favorite song right now is abandoned by Benjamin Hastings. I think it is a beautiful song. So we need to learn to let go and trust God with our schedules. If we are abiding in him, he is going to guide us and let us know if we’re taking on too much or lead us into something that he wants us to take on.

 

We need to let go. He has a plan and a perfect purpose for your life, and we need to trust in that plan. So one of my favorite quotes that I’ve ever read, you can’t pray for an A, but prepare for a B. So I believe that we need to be trusting God. We need to be abiding God. We need to be preparing that he has.

 

It’s his best plan for us, and we need to trust that it’s his best plan for us. But we also need to use the gifts, the skills, the talents that he’s given us to glorify his name, to live in excellence for the glory of God, to be the best women, wives, and mothers that we can be. I believe very strong in both of those things.

 

Let me remind you. To pray and to pray daily. I’m actually reading this book right now. It’s got, I’ve got it right in front of me. It’s called 31 days of prayer, moving God’s mighty hand. And something I’ve been learning this year is just to really be expectant. And our prayers are coming before the throne of the Lord.

 

Like he is listening to us. We knock, he answers. It may not be in the way that we want or what we think is best, but God always has a good and perfect plan for us. And we need to trust that, but we need to be coming to him in prayer. Prayer is how we talk to God. If we are not talking to him on a regular basis, we are not growing in intimacy with him.

 

So the importance of daily prayer, even small things, turning the key in your ignition, say a quick prayer, locking your door before you head out for the day, say a quick prayer. As soon as you open your eyes and your feet hit the floor, say a quick prayer, going into your quiet space, going into the secret space, as he says, and meeting him and praying deeply.

 

He knows everything, but we need to come to him in communication, in prayer. in order that we are staying grounded to him. I want to remind you today, if you feel like you’re striving, that it’s okay to rest. And in fact, it’s a mandate that God calls us to do so. And that it’s a gift. God designated it for us because he knew it would be so good for us.

 

So take it as the gift that it is. Schedule it in. Stop striving. Trust him. Go make a tea and go sit outside right now and watch. It’s probably beautiful fall leaves where you are. Not where I am in the tropics, but likely where you are. There’s some beautiful fall leaves. Go take a quick minute right now just to pause.

 

Play some Christian instrumental music. Don’t even put words. Don’t add extra noise to it. Just take a minute and rest. Deep rest. Close your eyes. Listen to the birds, whatever it is. Take a minute right now and go and rest. And if you’re not a good rester, trust me, I’ve been there. Um, Just remember the importance of grace and having compassion on yourself as you were trying to cultivate a rhythm of rest in your life.

 

Or maybe you’re on the other hand, and you feel like you rest too much that it’s bringing you to the side of laziness. Finding that right balance of rest and productivity as a modern mom is so important. And I just want to invite you to implement one thing that you learned on the podcast. Um, or maybe you already knew it, but you were just reminded by something that I said, just implement that this week.

 

How can you find rhythms of rest? Do you need to schedule rest? Do you need to take a minute with a hot cup of tea and some instrumental music and just like get away from the noise and just be quiet with the Lord? Do you need to like get everything out of your head because you’re feeling overwhelmed and distracted and like get it all out on paper so that you can find rest?

 

What do you need? Take that. I invite you to implement it this week. So I would love you to share your experience with rest, um, your maybe rhythm of rest. Share it with us on social media. If this episode blessed you, I would love so much if you would just scroll down right now and leave a quick rating and review for the podcast that helps other like minded moms to find us.

 

But before we end, I want to pray. I love praying. It’s an honor to pray. It’s an honor to step into that space and pray and intercede for you right now. So just take a quick moment and let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day. I thank you for Anna, Sophia, Jill, Michelle, A million other names I could be saying right now, but the woman that is listening to my words right now, I just thank you for bringing her here to this podcast.

 

I hope Lord that it encouraged her to find true rest in you, to balance productivity and rest, to move away from some of that comparison and just junk on social media, to cultivate a feed on social media that is encouraging, that is restful. That invites us into deeper relationship with you, Lord. Lord, I just lift them up.

 

You know their burdens, you know their struggles, you know their challenges. You know exactly what this woman is going through right now, Lord. And I just ask you to lighten her load. Um, I ask you to give her pockets of rest this week, this month. I ask you to help her plan out her rest, Lord. Show her when the best time to do that is.

 

I ask you to give her family unity and good communication and the perfect balance of living in this world to glorify you, but not living in this world to live in this world, Lord. We all have a plan and a purpose and we know For those of us that follow you, Lord, that it’s a good plan and a purpose, and that it all works out for our good.

 

For those who love you, Lord. We just thank you for this time. We thank you, um, for your word. We thank you for all the wisdom that you give to us. We thank you for leaving us with the Bible. We thank you for the Holy Spirit that dwells within us, Lord. I just ask for more of you, um, for the women listening to this right now.

 

I ask you for more in their marriages. I ask you to break any chains. I just feel like I need to pray that right now, Lord. Just break any chains that these women are struggling with in their marriages with their husbands, Lord. I ask you for hope and strength and resiliency in their motherhood, Lord. I ask you for patience.

 

I ask you for gentleness, goodness, self control. We want more of that, Lord. We want to be biblical women. We want to be modeling that for our children, Lord. Just, I ask you for forgiveness, anger, for snapping at our children or our husbands, Lord. I just wash over us, Lord, your grace. Your abundance of mercy that you have for us, Lord, we repent.

 

We come to you. We leave that at the foot of the throne. We give it all to you, Lord. We surrender. I just thank you so much for these women. I thank you for this community. I thank you for this generation of moms right now that are wanting to grow in you first and foremost, and wanting to glorify you in their marriages and in their motherhood, Lord, I ask all these things in the blood of Jesus.

 

Amen.

 

All right, mamas until next week, be blessed.