“Mom,” my daughter says as
she’s hitting a tennis ball on her Wii game at 9 am on a Monday morning, “I
think this Spring Break will be good. You know, to rest our brains.”
Out of the mouth of babes
comes perfect truth.
We are on Spring Break this
week. I’m not sure who needed it more, the kids or me? During regular weeks,
playing Wii at 9 am in the morning would be out of the question, even on
Saturday and Sunday. It seems like we’re always rushing to start school, or to
start our weekend chores and errands, or even rushing to get to church (sadly,
we’re still usually late).
But, we need rest. We need
relaxed schedules and time to play.
Last year was my first year
homeschooling and we didn’t take a Spring Break until much too late in the spring
semester. I felt like we couldn’t stop because it would break our momentum or
derail all of our progress. Instead, the kids were cranky, frustrated and burnt
out by mid April. That’s so like me, to push until we’re running on vapors.
This year I decided to take
Spring Break when our local public school was on break. The break would be earlier
in the semester, we’d be able to hang out with our friends that go to public
school and I wouldn’t feel like I was going to be arrested when we were going
places around town. I think it was a wise decision. I can already see how much
we needed it and I’m certain we’ll start back next week feeling rejuvenated.
So, why is it so hard to
take a break? Is it because of fear and anxiety? Maybe even a tiny bit of
pride? I remember my Grandma telling me she’d feel guilty when she’d take a
break, and I think I struggle in the same way.
Over the past two years, God
has been bringing me back to this idea of a Sabbath rest. I feel like he’s
rewiring my thought process on it. When the topic comes up over and over again,
I start to take note that God might be trying to tell me something. A few
things have stuck with me.
First, I keep thinking about
this quote, “A wise woman knows when she needs rest.” I think I read that quote
on Sally Clarkson’s blog about a year ago. It’s stuck with me. It isn’t foolish
or lazy to rest. It can be wise to rest.
Second, if you ever get a
chance to read Jen Hatmaker’s book, “Seven,” there is a funny-because-it’s-true
chapter on Stress. In the chapter, she talks about how she started taking
Sabbath rest seriously. I love what she says: “What if God understood our
tendency to overwork and underrest, so He made it mandatory for believers to
breathe…pause…pray…relax every week?” It encouraged me to try to do the same. (It
isn’t easy! I’m still figuring it out.)
Finally, this verse stopped
me in my tracks, enough so that I put it up in my kitchen and on my bathroom
mirror: “For all who have entered into God’s rest have rested from their
labors, just as God did after creating the world. So let us do our best to
enter that rest. But if we disobey God, as the people of Israel did, we will
fall.” – Hebrews 4:10-11
Gulp. That kind of makes all
my rushing around sound a bit like sin.
It makes perfect sense, of
course! When I refuse to rest, I’m cranky and irritable with my family. And,
deep down inside, I’m resentful. Obviously, none of that is what God wants for
my family, my life or me.
I had a long to-do list of
things I wanted to accomplish over Spring Break. It was completely unrealistic.
After my daughter made that comment about letting our brains rest, I decided to
cross several things off my to-do list and enjoy a relaxed week. Isn’t it neat
how God uses our children to encourage us?
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