The Holiday Shift: Rest Is Still Holy

This is the second week of my ‘holiday’ or let me call it a break from work.  I have been looking forward to the holidays. Like many working mothers, I imagined rest, slower mornings, no meetings and a chance to exhale after a long year. And in some ways, that rest is real. But in other ways, it isn’t. Because this is also the season when things in our household shift. Our helper goes home to be with her own family  as she should  and just like that, my “rest” changes shape.

This isn’t a rant. It’s just the truth I am living right now. When the work year ends, my work doesn’t disappear it changes. No work emails,  meetings and the commute to the office. These are all replaced with household chores, unending chores. What makes this especially complicated is that I feel two things at once.I am deeply grateful for the help I have during the year. I respect my helper’s need to rest, reconnect, and show up for her own family. I wouldn’t want it any other way. And still… I’m tired.

For most of the year, our household works because of systems, routines, delegation and shared effort. Those systems don’t make me less capable  as a mother, they make my life sustainable. When the holidays arrive and those systems pause, the load multiplies. And often, it lands back on me. And because this happens during a season that’s supposed to be joyful, I sometimes catch myself feeling guilty and thinking ‘I should be more grateful.’  ‘I shouldn’t feel overwhelmed.’  ‘Other people have it harder.
But naming what’s true doesn’t cancel my gratitude.

This season has forced me to be more intentional.
It has meant having honest conversations at home about shared responsibility. It  has meant letting our children take on more because this is how households work. This is how they learn that home is a shared space, not something one person manages in the background. And for me, it has meant loosening my grip, lowering the bar where I need to and letting some things wait.

There is a story in the Bible that feels especially relevant in this season. In Luke 10:38–42, Jesus visits the home of two sisters, Martha and Mary.
Martha is busy distracted, the Bible says with all the preparations that must be done. Mary, on the other hand, sits at Jesus’ feet and listens. Eventually, Martha reaches her limit. She voices what many of us have thought but rarely say out loud: “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself?” Jesus’ response is gentle, not dismissive: “Martha, Martha… you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better.”

Jesus was not  rebuking Martha for her service.
He was a reminding her  about priorities. Martha wasn’t wrong for working. The food still mattered. The home still mattered. The effort still mattered. But her mistake was believing that everything depended on her and that rest, presence, and stillness had to wait until the work was finished.

Rest is not the absence of responsibility. There is always something to be done. Always a task waiting. If we wait for the work to end before we rest, we may never rest at all. Jesus’ words remind us that rest is not a reward for exhaustion. It is a choice we are invited to make even when life is full. Sometimes rest looks like sitting down when you could be doing one more thing, and allowing others to step in.

The workload may still increase for a season but within it all, we are invited to choose the better part. To pause. To breathe. To remember that our worth is not measured by how much we manage, cook, clean, or hold together. Even Jesus rested. And if rest was holy enough for Him, it is holy for us too.

Gratitude: it’s been a good year for me and I am grateful to God for all of it. Through the highs and the lows, God was with me.

On my playlist this holiday season is various songs 🎵 including Micah Stampley ‘s Search For You. It’s such a classic 👌!

Gratefully