Rest is something that is vital for everyone, yet something that so many of us neglect and carelessly push aside for later uses.

How are we to find rest in a world that is constantly screaming "Go! Go! Go!"?

It is one of the most clandestine, underrated necessities of life.

By some, rest is even looked down upon. But without rest you do not work to the best of your ability, you do not love to the best of your ability, and you are simply not your best.

As I have begun college, I have come to realize that I am a perfectionist and that I desire everything to go precisely as I plan.

But the unfortunate veracity that I have recently been coming to grips with is that balancing a life of perfection is nearly impossible. The reality is that everything in life comes at a price.

In order to acquire perfection, I must sacrifice my emotional, physical, and spiritual stability.

Yet, if you think about it, this idea of searching for perfection while risking my stability is counterproductive. This is exactly what I don’t want. This is unerringly what I am so earnestly fighting against.

The exact thing that I am sacrificing for may also be the thing that is destroying me and making all my sacrifices void.

While on the search for perfection I am neglecting the time that it takes to get there- rest.

In a world that is constantly demanding more, and searching for the next best thing, it can be hard to realize that rest is a necessity within my everyday life.

Being the perfectionist that I am, I constantly worry about getting perfect grades, eating the perfect food, getting a perfect workout in as often as possible, and thriving in my social life.

The one thing I do not constantly worry about is rest. I never worry that my mind, body, and soul may not be receiving the rest that it longs for.

Because of this need to be perfect, I have a lot of “to-do” lists that if not completed, I will begin to feel like a failure. I give myself zero grace and zero forgiveness. If one “perfect” thing turns imperfect I let it affect my entire day.

I lose sight of the fact that my to-do lists are meant to be a guideline for organization's sake, not a standard of perfection that if not obtained the world as I know it will come crashing down.

Oddly enough, no matter how early I go to bed, no matter how many naps I may take, no matter the amount of rest that I get, it is still possible for me to feel exhausted.

As I thought about why this could be, I realized that I was looking for rest in the wrong places.

I read Matthew 11:28- "Come to me all who are weary, and I will give you REST." Jesus will give me the rest that I need. He is all that I need. Only when we spend time in the Bible and with Jesus will we find the rest that our souls are searching for.

I can let go of trying to achieve the unachievable and simply rest in Jesus' loving arms.

"You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds rest in you." -St. Augustine of Hippo