Selah. Found mostly in the Psalms. The pause. Today in this post, we’ll go over the importance of pauses I’ve learned in 2025 as a homesteader, homemaker, and homeschooling mother. Rest is a Biblical command. One we gloss over in the modern world as a mere suggestion. But what if we started to view Rest and Selah pauses as the gifts from God that they truly are? Let’s dive in.
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Biblical Commands and definitions of Selah
Listen, you know your relationship with the LORD, I do not.
Some will want to argue that we are under the New Covenant with Jesus. He came to fulfill the Law; not eradicate them. But that’s not the point of this blog post today. PAUSING IN LIFE is!
Some say selah means to pause, other say it is lifting of voice or perhaps a moment to reflect.
I do not claim to fully understand all the Bible tells me but I do recommend praying over it before you open the Word. Ask God for guidance, knowledge, wisdom, and discernment. He will give it.
Let’s talk rest + pauses now.
Sabbath Rest
Again, I won’t dig too deep into Sabbath Rest because that is a topic I am, too, am still studying and learning more about.
My family is trying to practice Sabbath rest and it’s harder than you think. The good news is that God is not expecting us to be perfect at it. Just obedient. Thank Him for that!
Sabbath rest is a gift given to us by God. Like our salvation, we simply have to be willing to take and receive the gifted blessing. It is not earned or worked for.
So many, including me, balk at Sabbath rest. Resting from all work for an entire day?! NO way! I can’t stop cleaning and cooking and tending to and going and doing for one full day a week!! I get it. I’ve said those same things many times.
Yet and still the concept of a full day’s rest has been weighing heavy on me for years. Like at least 8 years now. I’ve toyed with the idea but in true Katie fashion, I’ve overanalyzed every detail trying to make it perfect before simply trying that I’ve talked myself right out of attempting the practice too many times to count.
Could I start small with selah pauses first before Sabbath rest?
Absolutely you can! And I can too.
Turns out, I was already practicing the pauses before my family decided to dive into Sabbath rest.
I love a good Sabbath rest of absolutely nothing planned but to rest and do nothing we don’t want to do.
In fact that’s our Rest Day philosophy that everything must be run through first: “do I want to be doing this right now?” If the answer is no, then it can wait until tomorrow. Usually!
Taking stock of your responsibilities, daily tasks, and living organisms that rely on YOU for life need a thought out plan ahead of time.
Homesteaders, more for you coming. Keep reading.
Sabbath rest is a day of worship and that looks many different ways to different people.
Selah Pauses
If Sabbath rest is the big present with a red bow, then Selah Pauses are the cake and ice cream at the party.
We pause the movie or show to grab a snack and a new drink. We pause the game to come back to soon. Why can’t we take a pause from every day life to reset? We can!
In the work field, I reckon these pauses are called “15 minute break”, “smoke break”, or “lunch break”. Breaks every where. How about turning them into pauses?
Selah pauses are meant to be a commercial break of sorts. A pause in the middle of your day, your life. These help you reflect, reset, and rejuvenate so you can continue on with purpose, meaning, and good quality effort.
Let’s have a look at some tangible ways to take …
SELAH PAUSES:
- take a quick 5-10 minute walk outside
- take your time taking the stairs
- sit in the sun for a few moments
- set a timer to read a book for 10 minutes
- get up from your desk and stretch for 5 minutes in a new room or space
- grab your journal and a pen to write for 10 minutes
- take a family walk down the road or sidewalk after dinner
- stop to stargaze for a few minutes while walking from car to home or building
- stop to appreciate the sun, sunrise, or sunset
- stop to listen to the noises around you outside, particularly looking for the natural sounds
- take your shoes and socks off and plant your feet in the grass, sand, or dirt nearest to you
- set up and work on a puzzle each day in your living space
- take 45 minutes to bake a new cookie recipe (this and new crafts are great on Rest Days too!)
There are so many more pauses that can be added to this list. These are just a few to get your brain swirling with ideas for your own pauses.
Hustle Culture is so 2020
Hustle Culture by definition is a mindset that prioritizes and glorifies working excessively long hours and sacrificing personal well-being in pursuit of career success as defined by the interweb’s search engine.
Part of the American Dream is to work your fingers to the bone to prove your success, your hard-work ethic, etc. Work 24/7/365 to prove yourself worthy of your paycheck, your belongings, your achievements, etc. Never fully leaving your work at work.
I truly believe a mindset, perhaps even heart, shift has taken place in the last 5 years for many people. Priorities have changed and realigned with what’s most important. Seeing how fragile life is, how quickly things can change, has made many people reflect on how they are choosing to live their one earthly life as well as how they’ll spend eternity.
It’s not about hustling for many people anymore. It’s about quality over quantity. A life well-lived, not an accumulation of things and awards.
Inspired by Eryn Lynum
Eryn Lynum is an author who I learned about from my husband listening to the Culture Proof podcast who had her on as a guest. Eryn hosts the Nat Theo podcast and also mentioned her new book: The Nature of Rest.
Her book and connection of rest to nature inspired me to host a small group with friends. Once a week meeting for 7 weeks to discuss what we read and share what we learned together. Not a Bible study but a small group where the idea is rest from the work week and share our hearts with one another.
- To grow in the Lord and His provision for our lives.
- To encourage one another to grow closer to Jesus.
- To hold one another accountable.
It was a lovely experience using this book as our guide that is Biblically-backed with Scriptural references all throughout the text.
I simply posted a picture of the book with a quick explanation of how badly we need rest and asked my Facebook friends if they’d like to attend. There were 9 in our small group and honestly, they are not the 9 people from my “Friends” who I thought would attend.
A pleasant surprise! And proof that people are wanting to get out of the hustle culture grind and hamster wheel of working non-stop and then choosing to doom-scroll social media in the few moments they get to disassociate from life. How awful that sounds put into words…
Connecting the pauses to nature
It should come as no surprise that many of the suggested pauses above are connected to nature.
Nature is calming. Nature obeys God’s command.
Just as trees and sun and earth are all creations of God’s, we humans are too. We humans are the only of His Creation that doesn’t do as He commands, though. We are rebellious sinners in desperate need of The Savior.
Maybe now is high time we connect with Jesus, with nature, with pause, with rest.
What are your thoughts on selah pauses? How do you take time out of your busy life to reset? I’d love to hear in the comments below.
How do selah pauses relate to the homesteader?
For a homesteader or farmer or rancher, rest is hard to come by.
There are always animals, fields, etc. to tend to every single day. How’s a farmer to “Rest”? Honestly, that’s a tricky question. You can’t just skip milking the cow one day of the week or not go check on the baby chickens for a whole day. They depend on YOU for life.
This is where your pauses will come in.
Sure, being a homesteader/farmer/rancher/gardener means you are quite literally connected, perhaps fully immersed, in nature almost all day long.
But do you truly appreciate it? Do you “stop and smell the roses” per se?
Could you try today? As you are mucking stalls, filling water troughs, weeding rows, could you stop and appreciate the moment, the gift? Could you put down the shovel, hose, hoe for a moment; rest on its handle and contemplate the beauty that is around you? The blessing of a capable working body, gifts from your animals, garden, homestead? Could you take just 5 minutes to put off the work-things from your mind and take a little walk with no intention, no to-do list, just appreciation and thoughtful reflection?
Dear farmer/homesteader/rancher, you deserve rest too. Take a pause today (multiple times a day) so you don’t have to collapse, exhausted every day both physically and mentally into your bed at night.
Watch how selah pauses can change your perspective. It will happen.
Homemaker + Homeschool Mama + Homesteader
A leader of the home. A provider in a sense. A stewardess of home and children and education and sourdough and probably some animals too.
It’s a lot. I know it, do it, live it.
Add in being an “ingredients home” and there’s even more work. Lots of meal planning, meal prepping, meal ingredient buying, and oh, the dishes.
Now let’s be sure to pour on being a homeschooling mother who, as a former teacher, thinks it’s a good idea to be the creator of curriculum for two children in two different “grade levels”. Lots of responsibility, work, making sure kids stay on task and track throughout the day. Also instilling personal responsibility of chores and accountability.
As a homemaker there’s always the keeping of the house. Keeping it clean, keeping it tidy, keeping it a mess… choice is yours, mama, and no judgment here.
And then there are the animals, possibly, or the garden to prep, plant, tend, weed, water, harvest, preserve.
The to-do list never ends. It’s only ever added to. So how do you pause, much less REST, in the midst of all of this?
With intention and priorities.
With TRUST IN GOD that He’ll provide!
Follow Along
Take your selah pauses and enjoy what they have to offer you! You won’t regret them.
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You may also enjoy these topics:
9 Cozy Winter Hobbies for the Homesteader
The Toxicity of Self-Sufficiency in Modern Homesteading
How to make sun tea (great for days of rest or a quick selah pause refresher)
Power Down: It’s Like Camping in Your Own Home Without Electricity
