The Importance of Rest

Learn to Be a Little More Childlike

Sometimes—especially in America—we are trained that men act. We don’t sit around. We act, we take charge, we want to move and make things.

In response to this, Psalm 131:2 says, “But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.” We read that and, at first, we might just want to skip over that verse since it doesn’t sound very relevant to our masculinity. Yet, in Psalm 131:2, there is a truth that we as men need to hear.

We need to know that we are not in charge and we need to know how to submit to God as the one who is in charge. We should not raise ourselves up in complaint to God but, instead—like this child in its mother’s lap—we need to learn how to rest.

There’s a beautiful picture in Deuteronomy of the everlasting God as our dwelling place, with his everlasting, eternal arms stretched out beneath us. It is similar to the imagery we find in Psalm 131:2 and reminds us that men need to learn to rest just as much as everyone else does.