I was holding my teen the other day when I felt it …

A deep sigh.

In a conversation a while ago with my dear friend Terrie, we talked about this thing we found ourselves doing rather frequently … sighing.

Deep sighing.

We discussed our theories on why that may, or may not be … our deep sighing that is … and just resigned to the fact, sometimes a girl’s just gotta do some deep sighing.

So when I saw this image on Pinterest recently, I thought of her immediately and had to send it.

She understood.

It’s true. Sometimes you just cannot sigh quite deep enough.

So when I was holding Taylor and felt her deep sigh, I remembered this image, and my conversation with Terrie and I thought I’d write about it.

And then of course, with that seed planted, I started becoming aware. Of other sighing being done around me.

When I hold my youngest — after she’s had her feelings hurt by her sisters — and she’s on my lap crying and finally I feel it.

A deep sigh.

Or when I’m walking a horse out, and he’s anxious or moving quickly … and then?

He sighs deeply. And relaxes. And decides to walk calmly beside me.

When I looked up the definition of “sigh,” I was surprised by one of the definitions and it actually brought tears to my eyes — for Terrie, for Taylor, and even for myself:

“feel a deep yearning for {someone or something lost, unattainable, or distant}”

No wonder there are days we can’t quite sigh deep enough.

In doing a little Biblical research, I learned there were many times David {as in King David who was hiding in the wilderness from his enemy Saul} wrote about his “sighing and suffering” in the book of Psalms.

Just like David did, we need to find comfort in God’s unfailing love for us. “But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, for he has been good to me.” Psalm 13:5-6 {NIV}

In Mark 7:31-35, we read about Jesus looking up to the heavens and DEEP sighing as He was about to heal a deaf man who could hardly talk. Matthew Henry’s commentary says {paraphrasing}, “He sighed; not as if he found any difficulty in working this miracle, or obtaining power to do it from his father; but as if expressing his pity for the miseries of human life.”

I cried when I read this too. It was as if Jesus too, was sighing — or feeling — “a deep yearning for something lost, unattainable, or distant.”

I found a beautiful article from Arthur Pink, written in 1947, titled, “Prayer Sighs.” If this topic interests you at all, I encourage you to read it. Here’s a small piece of what it says:

“So by prayer sighs, we mean those agitations and breathings of soul which are virtually synonymous with groans. A “sigh” is an inarticulate declaration, an indistinct cry for deliverance. The saints are sometimes so opposed and troubled, that they cannot find language suited to their emotions: where words fail them, the thoughts and feelings of their hearts find expression in sighs and cries.”

If you’re in a season of deep sighing — whatever the reason may be — I pray you find hope today in this promise:

“And those the LORD has rescued will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.” Isaiah 35:10 {NIV}