Rest on every side in the playroom

by Sulamith (31 y.)

This summer, we as OCG have spent a lot of time on the topic of “rest on every side”. The term comes from the time of Moses, when God promised him and the whole people of Israel a rest from all enemies. This rest didn’t just come automatically though, they had to take it piece by piece and defeat all enemies – who were many times superior. There is a wonderful booklet about this, which describes the path to peace all around like a manual. In it, my father writes: “In our practice today, this peace all around means nothing other than, that it is the most normal and natural thing for us as families, as extended families, as a congregation, etc., to arrive at – to have the complete upper hand over all the trouble spots in our lives.” I have often wondered why there have to always be so many problems in our lives. It is precisely because we are learning to rule, in God’s power, over the problems that are superior to us, and to take over land after land until finally all death is cast out of creation.

This point of view really inspires me and I would like to tell you about such an enemy, which we recently put to flight, and thoroughly completely chased out. It may seem like a “small, meaningless enemy”, but according to the Rest-on-every-side instruction, that’s exactly where you start: in the immediate, closest environment. This will cast circles and I am sure that the financial elite and Co. will then also soon have their turn, if we defeat one obvious unrest after the other – all together .

At home we have a playroom. As you can imagine, with five kids playing, it’s challenging to keep things tidy in there! Although we kept tidying up, the chaos broke out faster and faster and no one really knew how to clean it up anymore. It really became a burden and robbed us of our energy.

When we then dealt with the subject of “rest all around”, I got the faith to grab this unrest by the scruff of the neck. It doesn’t matter whether the unrest is happening at home in the playroom or out there on the “big world stage”. It is the same impossibility. And if I have the faith for the small things, I’ll also get the faith for the very big impossibilities. So one day I stood in the playroom with the kids and we charged at the enemy with united force . We emptied all the toy cupboards, sorted out and made a separate box for each type of toy. On these boxes we stuck beautifully laminated labels,with a little picture on it, so that even the smallest ones know in which box which toys belong. (e.g. dolls/doll clothes/Lego/beads/animals/Playmobile people etc.) We also stuck these little pictures on the shelves so that you always know which box has its place where. Although we almost wanted to give up in the middle of the project, because the chaos was even bigger than before, we just kept at it and didn’t get discouraged. When we were finally done, we had such great joy! The children were jumping for joy and the victory was just huge! Now many weeks have passed and the peace and order is still the same as that day! Yay! That’s real peace and quiet all around!

With this, I want to encourage you to tackle the most obvious enemies in your life. Admittedly, none of us can do it. But that is also right. If you want to know how to do it anyway, then read the brochure I recommended at the beginning.

I look forward to the rest on every side in the world!

Warm greetings,

Sulamith