Congrats to Holly B. for winning the Nothing to Hold but Hope book and to Kelly B. for winning the Echoes of My Heart album! Thank you to all those who entered, follow the links above if you want to purchase your own book and CD.

By Jennifer Kostick

At the end of June I was delighted to guest post over at Rebekah’s beautiful blog. If you didn’t catch that post you can read it here.

The post is about rest, and one of the questions I posed was, “What does your pace look like?” My friend messaged me the other day, and in her message she mentioned a list of all the things I am currently doing…serving alongside my husband, raising four kids, writing a book, starting a non-profit (a.k.a dreaming of building a castle on the property behind our house- turning it into a Christian camp someday), blogging, etc. It made me tired just reading the list. And that’s not including trips, softball games, church, kids activities and more!

My parents did a great job of fostering our creativity, instilling confidence and helping us try lots of different things. The problem I have now is that the creativity oozes over into lots of areas and sometimes I have trouble focusing on the one thing in front of me. Not their fault at all, it is a balance problem I have allowed.

So my pace lately looks crazy and I don’t like it. A lot of it is self-induced.

So the very day my post on rest went live on Rebekah’s blog, I hit a wall of exhaustion. Talk about feeling like a hypocrite! I felt like I was going to collapse. I was in bed most of the day and worried about my health. 

Since my website launched in February and I got more serious about my writing, I have not been getting enough sleep. I go to bed late (way too late). It bothers me, it bothers hubby and it doesn’t help me be a nice mommy either. Four months of sleep deprivation took its toll. I was mad at myself and sad that I hadn’t listened to Hubby’s promptings. The Holy Spirit had been trying to get my attention to rest too- everywhere I looked (books, posts, sermons, scripture) “rest” was the topic. Why didn’t I listen?!

When I was at the doctor for a physical I even set a goal to get more sleep.

So, with the Psalms Series done and the She Speaks Conference quickly approaching, I am going to slow my blogging and social media pace in order to focus on what’s most important right now- my family and finishing my book proposal. 

Thank you for grace as I run the race set before me. I have been trying to sprint during this marathon and it has left me fatigued and running on empty. I have also been neglecting God’s Word, which is a recipe for disaster, so the last two days I have been reading His Word before I dive into ministry/writing, and though its been hard (because I am out of the habit) it has been a relief to my spirit. 

So things will be more quiet on Deep Breaths for now. I will be posting a few more book reviews here this summer and will be keeping up with the Open Heart series, a blog hop, and a few other posts over at Echoes of My Heart.

Thank you for grace and understanding as I pull back in order to finish well. If this book is ever going to get done, I need to say “no” to some good things, so that I can say “yes” to the best things. Hmm, sounds like that would make a good book.

Deep Breaths:


1. What does your pace look like? Are you sprinting through life or slowing to see what He has lovingly set before you?

2. Just over a year ago I wrote this (see a pattern here), take a few minutes to read The Scurry and Hurry, the Drop and Plop, and the Need to Be Still this Summer, and be encouraged to rest as you take in the unique beauty of this season.

3. Where does this idea of rest come from? The One who didn’t have to rest, but He did, so that we would have a powerful example to do the same.

Genesis 2:1-3 “Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done” (NIV).

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