The Work of Rest: Preparing for Biblical Sabbath in Pregnancy & Postpartum
Hey friend, I'm so glad you're here today. If you're in a season of pregnancy, motherhood, or preparing for postpartum—and rest feels completely out of reach—this episode is for you. Today we're diving into something that might sound contradictory at first: it takes work to rest. But what I've discovered is that God designed Sabbath not as perfection, but as preparation. And when we understand that, everything changes. Let's peel back the guilt, the pressure, and the perfectionism, and talk about Sabbath the way God actually designed it—as a gift, even in the fullest seasons of life.
🎧 Listen to the Episode
Why Sabbath Feels Impossible (And Why It's Still for You)
Lately I've been listening to The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer, and the chapter on Sabbath literally stopped me in my tracks. I'm pregnant, I have two littles at home, and honestly—chances are if you're reading this, you're probably in a really full season too.
Sabbath sounds so holy and refreshing. But it can also feel very out of reach. Like, how do you rest when someone's always needing you? How do you slow down when your kids need you at 5:00 AM or your baby is cluster feeding or your body is completely exhausted from being pregnant?
So I want this to feel like an exhale—a place where we peel back the guilt and the pressure and the perfectionism and talk about Sabbath the way God actually designed it. Because it truly is a gift, even for you in this season, even if it looks nothing like how you would imagine, and even if it's imperfect or interrupted.
What Sabbath Really Means (And What It Doesn't)
When I talk about Sabbath, you might imagine lounging around the house with no plans or praying and worshiping for hours. And those examples can be beautiful, but they're not the only version of Sabbath.
Sabbath began in the very first week of creation. God rested not because He needed to, but because He was showing us the rhythm we were made for—a rhythm of work and rest, effort and surrender, doing and being.
Adam and Eve Rested First
And here's something that my pastor has been talking about that really struck me: Adam and Eve's first full day of life was a Sabbath. They had not done any work yet. They hadn't necessarily earned any rest. They had just been created the day before, but their very first experience was resting with God—and that rest prepared them for the work He had for them in the days ahead.
Sabbath isn't just recovery from what you've done. It's preparation for what God has for you.
That's how I want to think about my Sabbath. It's restful and worshipful preparation for whatever the Lord has for me in the coming week. It's me receiving from Him so that I can pour out from a full cup, not an empty one.
Jesus echoes this in Mark 2:27 when He says, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath."
Sabbath was made for us—to bless us, to revive us, to anchor us, to prepare us, and just to remind us that we don't have to live as a slave to pressure or productivity.
The Two Questions That Changed How I Sabbath
One of the parts of The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry that really stuck out to me is the author's way of choosing what to do on the Sabbath. He uses two simple questions:
Is this restful?
Is this worship?
And if the answer is not yes to both of those, he doesn't do it on the Sabbath.
What I love about looking at it that way is how deeply personal it is. What is restful for one person might be stressful for someone else, and what feels worshipful in one season may not feel worshipful in another.
Create Your Own Sabbath List
So here's something that might really bless you, and I'm doing this too: Make a short list of things that feel restful and worshipful for you right now, in this season.
Because again, this list is going to change. Where you are in your pregnancy or with your kids or in the postpartum season—life will shape that. But the list is not a list of shoulds. It's a list of invitations.
Here are some examples of what's on my Sabbath list right now:
A delicious big breakfast – I'm a big breakfast person, and that to me is restful and worshipful
Listening and meditating on a worship song – Sometimes I’ll have a particular worship song I'm meditating on constantly
Doing a picnic outside with my family – We've been having some beautiful weather days lately. We just sit out on a blanket and eat our lunch and get the fresh air and sun
Taking a nap – This has been so nice this pregnancy. On days that I do get a nap, that to me is honestly so worshipful and of course, restful
Taking an Epsom salt bath – Especially with how achy pregnancy can make you feel. Maybe throw in some essential oils. My favorite is lavender
Getting a massage, facial, or pedicure – Of course, I can't do these super frequently, but whenever I do get a chance, it's such a treat because it is restful and worshipful for me
Just some things to put on your radar that could maybe become something you do on your Sabbath.
Sabbath with Little Kids Looks Different (And That's Okay)
I want to acknowledge something important: Sabbath with little kids does not look like Sabbath before you have kids.
It's much louder, messier, and more interrupted. Someone is always needing something, and that's okay.
If Sabbath is about perfection, we are all in deep trouble. But the Sabbath is not about being perfect. It's about the intention—slowing down intentionally where you can, making space where you can, and just leaning into the Lord for rest. And then it becomes something that's accessible and beautiful.
The Contradictory Truth: It Takes Work to Rest
The other thing that I wanted to point out when it comes to resting is this contradictory truth about it: it does take work to rest.
If you want to truly sabbath on, say, Sunday, all of the other days of the week are going to require some intentionality. You'll want to get laundry done earlier in the week or on the weekend. You'll want to meal prep for Sunday. You'll want to make sure the house is tidy if that's something that's important for you to be able to rest—not in this frantic, perfectionistic way, but just as a way that you can actually rest on the Sabbath day that you have decided for the week.
Because if you wake up Sunday morning and there's no clean dishes, no food in the fridge, and piles of laundry, that's hard to rest. I would not be able to rest in that situation. So you end up needing to work through the Sabbath because you have no other choice.
Preparing for Postpartum Rest: Learning from My Mistakes
And this becomes even more critical in the postpartum period.
If you're preparing to have a baby, especially if you already have little ones at home, postpartum rest is going to take a lot of preparation and discipline. You'll need help lined up for your older kids, meals prepared or a meal train that's organized, household tasks delegated, and maybe even someone to come help you with laundry or grocery runs.
My Story: When I Failed to Plan
And I say this from experience because I really did fail to plan, and so I planned to fail.
After Daniel was born, my second, I did not set up nearly enough support. I thought that I could just power through, and I just assumed that people would help me—like family and friends would just be able to stop by and help us out and all the things. But my body took so much longer to recover than I expected because I was getting up and doing all the things—light housework, cooking, helping with Ellie, and just trying to manage everything. Brian and I both were just running ourselves completely ragged during that time.
Looking back, I so wish we had just lined up some very specific help from family and friends. Or honestly, we had just hired a postpartum doula.
What Is a Postpartum Doula?
And if that's a new concept to you, what a postpartum doula is, is they help with things like:
Light housework
Meal prep
Caring for older siblings
Baby care tips
Breastfeeding support
Emotional help and encouragement
They're there to, quote unquote, "mother the mother" so you can actually rest and heal and bond with your baby in the postpartum time.
And if you're listening to this right now and you are pregnant, I would highly encourage you to look into something like a postpartum doula because the work you do now to prepare for rest is not wasted effort. It really truly is an investment in your healing. It's an investment to financially have somebody come and help take care of you, but it is worth it if you're able to make that happen. And it truly is an act of stewardship over your body and for your family.
This is you just coming to the Lord and saying, "I'm going to honor the way that you've built my body"—which includes rest.
Postpartum as a God-Designed Sabbath Season
Now I want to shift onto something that's also been on my heart in the same vein as Sabbath rest, but that's the rest that's required in the postpartum season.
When I'm talking about Sabbath rest, I mean like this weekly rhythm. But Scripture also gives a very specific example of a seasonal Sabbath, which is in the postpartum period.
The Biblical Foundation for Postpartum Rest
In the Old Testament, mothers were given 40 days of rest after giving birth to a baby boy and 80 days of rest after giving birth to a baby girl. And this wasn't a punishment. This was not because they were unclean in the way that we think of the word, but because God built in a sacred season of rest to honor the incredible work a woman's body just did.
This was a way of Him protecting us. It was mercy. It was a time of healing. And I feel like it's the Lord saying, "Your body matters. Your recovery matters, and it matters to Me that you rest."
The Modern Expectation vs. God's Design
Today we do not see this happen whatsoever. We are expected to have the complete opposite experience—to bounce back, to host visitors, to resume all the things we were doing before. And the faster you can do that, somehow that is a sign that you're the healthiest mom. I don't know. It's very messed up.
But the Lord just keeps whispering to me and maybe to you too: Rest is a part of My design, and rest is a part of your healing.
So when I think about postpartum time, I just keep thinking about how the Lord is inviting me into this discipline and creativity of being able to sabbath in the postpartum time—the discipline to prepare things ahead of time like meals, boundaries, support, expectations, and then the creativity it takes to actually rest. Thinking about what that might look like with three kids, one of those being a newborn, in a culture that does not allow us to slow down or encourage us to slow down.
And yes, it's extremely ironic that we have to work in order to rest, but in the world that we live in that really does push us to hurry and to just always be doing, it really does become an act of trust and obedience in the Lord when we Sabbath and when we rest.
Applying the Sabbath Questions to Postpartum
So using those same Sabbath questions—Is this restful? Is this worship?—we can apply them to postpartum too.
Trying to clean the house?
Probably not restful, probably not worship.
Holding your newborn while marveling at God's faithfulness?
That's both.
Receiving meals from friends or your church?
Restful and worshipful. It takes humility, and humility is worship.
Saying no to unnecessary visitors?
Restful, worshipful, because you're stewarding what God entrusted to you.
Postpartum rest is not pampering. It's stewardship.
📖 Scripture for Your Heart
"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
— Matthew 11:28–30 (ESV)
One passage that I've just been returning to over and over again is Matthew 11:28 through 30, and it's where Jesus says, "Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
And I want to just pause there, because Jesus was speaking to people who were spiritually exhausted and crushed under expectations they literally could never live up to. And that sounds a lot like modern motherhood.
He is not saying, "Come to me once you've figured out all the things." He's saying, "Come to me right now as you are: tired, overwhelmed." Come with the guilt of wanting rest from this and wanting a reprieve from these things.
Sabbath rest, postpartum rest, daily rest—they all flow from the same invitation, which is Jesus saying to us, "Come to me and I will give you rest."
🙏 A Prayer for You on Your Journey
Lord Jesus, I lift up the mama reading this right now, and You see her. You see every ache in her body and every moment she's pouring herself out for her family in every way and every place that she just feels so tired and stretched and unsure of how she can keep going. And I thank You that Your heart toward her is not harsh or demanding, and You simply say, "Come to me and I will give you rest."
Jesus, I pray that You would give this sweet mama supernatural rest today. I pray that You would show her the tiny moments of Sabbath that are available to her and that You would reveal to her what is restful and what is worshipful in the season that she's in right now. And for the mama who's preparing for the postpartum time, I pray, Lord, that You would give her wisdom and creativity and humility to build out a space of postpartum healing.
I pray, Lord Jesus, that You would remind her that You are not asking her for perfection, but You're asking her to let You carry what she can't. And I just ask that You would allow her to feel deep in her bones that she does not walk through this season alone, and I ask this in Your precious name, Jesus. Amen.
📎Resources & Links Mentioned
📕 The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer
✨ Christian Mama Birth Prep Library - Free birth prep tools, worship playlists & more
✝️ Online Christian Childbirth Education - Explore my complete birth preparation self-paced course
📞 Free 15-Minute Discovery Call: Schedule your no-obligation consultation with me today! I would LOVE to connect with you.
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Meet Your Host —
Natalie is a certified birth doula and childbirth educator in Jacksonville, FL. She's trained through DONA International, certified as a Body Ready Method Pro, and an advanced VBAC doula. Through Faith Over Fear Birth, she equips Christian women to experience peaceful, faith-filled births through both virtual and in-person support.
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📄 Full Episode Transcript
Hey, friend. Today's conversation is one that's been really stirring my heart for a while now, and I have a feeling it's going to challenge you, but also give you a new perspective on resting in a way that is very intentional and God-centered.
So lately I've been listening to the book, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, by John Mark Comer, which I'll include in the show notes, but the chapter on Sabbath literally stopped me in my tracks. I am still pregnant. I have two littles, and honestly, chances are if you're listening to this, you're probably in a really full season as well. And Sabbath, which sounds so holy and refreshing, can also feel very out of reach, like very impossible. Like how do you rest when someone's always needing you? And how do you slow down when your kids need you at 5:00 AM or your baby is cluster feeding or your body is just completely exhausted from being pregnant?
So I want this episode to be a time where we peel back the guilt and the pressure and the perfectionism and talk about Sabbath the way God actually designed it, because it is truly a gift even for you in this season, even if it looks nothing like how you would imagine, and even if it's imperfect or interrupted.
When I talk about Sabbath, you might imagine, you know, that means just lounging around the house with no plans or you're just praying and worshiping for hours. And those examples can be beautiful, but they're not the only version of Sabbath. Sabbath began in the very first week of creation. God rested not because he needed to, but because he was showing us the rhythm we were made for. A rhythm of work and rest, effort and surrender, doing and being.
And here's something that my pastor has been talking a lot more about: how Adam and Eve's first full day of life was a Sabbath and they had not done any work yet. They hadn't necessarily earned any rest. They had just been created the day before, but their very first experience was resting with God and that rest prepared them for the work he had for them in the days ahead. Sabbath isn't just recovery from what you've done, it's preparation for what God has for you.
And that's how I want to think about my Sabbath. It's restful and worshipful preparation for whatever the Lord has for me in the coming week. It's me receiving from him so that I can pour out from a full cup, not an empty one. And Jesus echoes this in Mark 2:27 where he says, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." Sabbath was made for us to bless us, to revive us, to anchor us, to prepare us, and just to remind us that we don't have to live as a slave to pressure or productivity.
One of the parts of the book, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, that really stuck out to me is the author's way of choosing what to do on the Sabbath. And he uses two simple questions: Is this restful and is this worship? And if the answer is not yes to both of those, don't do it on the Sabbath. And what I love about looking at it that way is how deeply personal it is. What is restful for one person might be stressful for someone else, and what feels worshipful in one season may not feel worshipful in another.
So here's something that might really bless you, and I'm doing this too: I encourage you to make a short list of things that feel restful and worshipful for you right now, in this season, because again, this list is going to change. And where you are in your pregnancy or with your kids or in the postpartum season, life will shape that. But the list is not a list of shoulds, it's a list of invitations.
So I'm just gonna give some examples for me right now in this season, and that looks like having a delicious big breakfast. I'm a big breakfast person, and that to me is restful and worshipful. Listening and meditating on a worship song. I don't know about you, but sometimes the Lord will just have a particular worship song I'm meditating on constantly. So choose one of those or a couple of those and just spend intentional time with the Lord with those. Doing a picnic outside with my family on really beautiful days. We've been having some beautiful days lately, weather wise. We just sit out on a blanket and just eat our lunch and that is so much fun, just getting the fresh air and the sun and all that. I love it.
Taking a nap. Oh my goodness, this has been so nice this pregnancy, just being able to take a nap. I don't take them every day like I probably should be, but on days that I do get a nap, that to me is honestly so worshipful and of course, restful. Taking an Epsom salt bath. I love sitting in my bathtub, especially Epsom salt with how achy pregnancy can make you feel. Maybe throw in some essential oils there. My favorite is lavender. And going and getting a massage or a facial or a pedicure, something like that. Of course, I can't do those super frequently, but you know, whenever I do get a chance to do those, that's such a treat because it is restful and it is worshipful for me. Just some things to kind of put on your radar that could maybe become something you do on your Sabbath.
So I wanted to acknowledge something important. Again, Sabbath with little kids does not look like Sabbath before you have kids. It's much louder, messier, and more interrupted. Someone is always needing something and that's okay. If Sabbath is about perfection, we are all in deep trouble. But the Sabbath is not about being perfect. It's about the intention, slowing down intentionally where you can, making space where you can, and just leaning into the Lord for rest. And then it becomes something that's accessible and beautiful.
So the other thing that I wanted to point out when it comes to resting is this contradictory truth about it: it does take work to rest. If you want to truly sabbath on, say, Sunday, all of the other days of the week are going to require some intentionality. You'll want to get laundry done earlier in the week or on the weekend. You'll want to meal prep for Sunday. You'll want to make sure the house is tidy if that's something that's important for you to be able to rest, not in this frantic, perfectionistic way, but just as a way that you can actually rest on the Sabbath day that you have decided for the week.
Because if you wake up Sunday morning and there's no clean dishes, no food in the fridge, and piles of laundry, that's hard to rest. Like I would not be able to rest in that situation. So you end up needing to work through the Sabbath because you have no other choice. And this becomes even more critical in the postpartum period. If you're preparing to have a baby, especially if you already have little ones at home, postpartum rest is going to take a lot of preparation and discipline. You'll need help lined up for your older kids, meals prepared or a meal train that's organized, household tasks delegated, and maybe even someone to come help you with laundry or grocery runs.
And I say this from experience because I really did fail to plan and so I planned to fail. After Daniel was born, my second, I did not set up nearly enough support. I thought that I could just power through and I just assumed that people would help me, like family and friends would just be able to stop by and help us out and all the things. But my body took so much longer to recover than I expected because I was getting up and doing all the things and light housework and cooking and helping with Ellie and just trying to manage all the things. And Brian and I both were just running ourselves completely ragged during that time.
Looking back, I so wish we had just lined up some very specific help from family and friends, or honestly, we had just hired a postpartum doula. And if that's a new concept to you, what a postpartum doula is, is they help with things like light housework, meal prep, caring for older siblings if you have them, baby care, breastfeeding support, emotional help and encouragement. And they're there to, quote unquote, mother the mother so you can actually rest and heal and bond with your baby in the postpartum time.
And if you're listening to this right now and you are pregnant, I would highly encourage you to look into something like a postpartum doula because the work you do now to prepare for rest is not wasted effort. It really truly is an investment in your healing. It's an investment to financially have somebody come and help take care of you, but it is worth it if you're able to make that happen. And it truly is an act of stewardship over your body and for your family. And this is you just coming to the Lord and saying, "I'm going to honor the way that you've built my body," which includes rest.
And so now I want to just shift onto something that's also been on my heart in the same vein as Sabbath rest, but that's the rest that's required in the postpartum season. When I'm talking about Sabbath rest, I mean like this weekly rhythm. But scripture also gives a very specific example of a seasonal Sabbath, which is in the postpartum period. In the Old Testament, mothers were given 40 days of rest after giving birth to a baby boy and 80 days of rest after giving birth to a baby girl. And this wasn't a punishment. This was not because they were unclean in the way that we think of the word, but because God built in a sacred season of rest to honor the incredible work a woman's body just did. This was a way of him protecting us. It was mercy. It was a time of healing. And I feel like it's the Lord saying, "Your body matters. Your recovery matters and it matters to me that you rest."
Today we do not see this happen whatsoever. We are expected to have the complete opposite experience, to bounce back, to host visitors, to resume all the things we were doing before. And the faster you can do that, somehow that is a sign that you're the healthiest mom. I don't know. It's very messed up. But the Lord just keeps whispering to me and maybe to you too: rest is a part of my design, and rest is a part of your healing.
So when I think about postpartum time, I just keep thinking about how the Lord is inviting me into this discipline and creativity of being able to sabbath in the postpartum time. The discipline to prepare things ahead of time like meals, boundaries, support, expectations, and then the creativity it takes to actually rest. So thinking about what that might look like with three kids, one of those being a newborn, in a culture that does not allow us to slow down or does not encourage us to slow down. And yes, it's extremely ironic that we have to work in order to rest, but in the world that we live in that really does push us to hurry and to just always be doing, it really does become an act of trust and obedience in the Lord when we Sabbath and when we rest.
So using those same Sabbath questions, is this restful? Is this worship? We can apply them to postpartum too. Trying to clean the house? Probably not restful, probably not worship. Holding your newborn while marveling at God's faithfulness? That's both. Receiving meals from friends or your church? Restful and worshipful. It takes humility, and humility is worship. Saying no to unnecessary visitors? Restful, worshipful, because you're stewarding what God entrusted to you. Postpartum rest is not pampering, it's stewardship.
One passage that I've just been returning to over and over again is Matthew 11:28 through 30, and it's where Jesus says, "Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." And I want to just pause there, because Jesus was speaking to people who were spiritually exhausted and crushed under expectations they literally could never live up to. And that sounds a lot like modern motherhood. He is not saying, "Come to me once you've figured out all the things." He's saying, "Come to me right now as you are: tired, overwhelmed." And come with the guilt of wanting rest from this and wanting a reprieve from these things. Sabbath rest, postpartum rest, daily rest—they all flow from the same invitation, which is Jesus saying to us, "Come to me and I will give you rest."
I just wanna lift you up in prayer as we wrap up this episode and just meditate on what rest and Sabbath and the postpartum time looks like.
Lord Jesus, I lift up the mama listening right now, and you see her. You see every ache in her body and every moment she's just pouring herself out for her family in every way and every place that she just feels so tired and stretched and unsure of how she can keep going. And I thank you that your heart toward her is not harsh or demanding, and you simply say, "Come to me and I will give you rest." Jesus, I pray that you would just give this sweet mama supernatural rest today. I pray that you would show her the tiny moments of Sabbath that are available to her and that you would just reveal to her what is restful and what is worshipful in the season that she's in right now. And for the mama who's preparing for the postpartum time, I pray, Lord, that you would just give her wisdom and creativity and humility to build out a space of postpartum healing. I pray, Lord Jesus, that you would remind her that you are not asking her for perfection, but you're asking her to let you carry what she can't. And I just ask that you would allow her to feel deep in her bones that she does not walk through this season alone, and I ask this in your precious name, Jesus. Amen.
So before we wrap up, I just wanted to leave you with a gentle invitation. Again, just take a moment and with either a notebook or on your phone, start making a list of things that feel both restful and worshipful to you in this season. And again, remember, this list will change and what feels restorative during this current season, whether that's being pregnant or postpartum, that will always change, and that is totally fine.
And start small. Give yourself lots of grace as you're learning this new rhythm. We have been trying this out in my house and it can be so hard. Like I did not realize how much I needed rest until I was like, okay, I just need a dedicated day. And somehow I am finding it takes more discipline to rest like I've been talking about this whole time. And so if it feels awkward for you, if it feels really hard for you and you feel like you're missing the mark with it, that is okay. It's a spiritual discipline, right? And so just give yourself the grace as you're slowly working through what that looks like in your family and in this season that you're in.
So sweet mama, I just pray that you would take that first small step. Make your list, choose one thing, and let God meet you there.
