Rest

About a week ago, I woke up with a sore throat. Swallowing hurt quite a bit and as a camp counselor, that day was miserable! My voice gradually left throughout the five and a half hour camp shift I had and dizziness became my not so welcomed friend by the last hour there. On the average day, I love spending time with the kids; but, last Thursday they were hard to handle with the little man voice I had left.

The next morning, I woke up nauseous, all of my voice gone, barely being able to speak even one word, a headache, and feeling weak all over. With my shift in the next hour, I texted my boss to explain to her what happened and that I was not going to make it in. She thankfully understood and responded, “It’s ok! Sick happens…get some rest and drink lots of fluids.”. I took the day in my room just taking care of myself, drinking honey and lemon tea, taking medication, and RESTING.

That last concept is foreign to me. It was so hard to just do nothing all day. I was going insane. If not for the advice of a good friend of mine, I would have forced my incapable body to go into work the next day! I would have even made myself work out through the sickness I was feeling. You see, I am a workaholic. I tend to fall into the category of live to work instead of work to live more often than I’d like. I have found working a job like a camp counselor, kid’s soccer coach, and child care worker has relieved so much anxiety and depression in my personal life! This is all because I LOVE my job at that company where I fulfil those positions.

Although it is great that God not only provided me a job for the summer; but, a job that I love, I still need to give myself time to rest and so do you! It is easy to get so wrapped up in “staying busy” that we neglect the self-care that we need on a daily basis. It is important to not let your life be solely defined by your job; but, by who you are, where you are, and where you want to be one day.

Get up, go to work, make money, go home, workout, shower, go to bed, and do it all over again the next day. This is life for many and I have felt like this many times in my life, even though I am only 20. If I am not working Im helping with my niece and nephews and if Im not doing that I am working out or doing classwork. We live in a world where everyone is on the go. There is always somewhere someone has to be or something someone needs to do. Sick days are inconveniences instead of warning signs of the need to rest.

There’s healthy meal plans to coordinate, workouts to keep up with, bills to pay, friends to commit time to, work to go to, and sleep to fit in the middle of it all. It is my experience that more often than not people want more time to relax instead of harboring the feeling of needing less time to just relax.

I, myself, always have to be doing something. I do not like being unproductive or still in anyway! I want to be constantly making steps forward towards the woman of God that I want to be; but, I can not get there on my own! It takes good coaches and friends that care about me to help me continue to see where I need to be better taking care of myself by resting!

Contrary to what some might say, self-care is not selfish, it is necessary to effective and good stewardship of the body that you have been given! Self-care is most importantly required to be able to best minister those around you! Self-care has been created into each of us.

Ephesians 5:29 states: “For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church…”

This passage's context is referring to the relationship between a husband and a wife as they are to resemble the relationship between Christ and the Church. God commands the husband to love the wife as he does his own body. God says that logically a man will nourish and cherish his own body and so he should do the same to his wife. It is natural and necessary to take care of oneself. As it says above, "just as Christ does the church...". He nourishes and cherishes the Church as He would His own body. He understood self-care.

The most important part about self-care is rest itself. Sometimes it just means to be still in God's presence and in awe of His majesty;but, it all comes down to this: If you are burnt out, what energy do you have to serve God or others? If you are too tired to do anything but eat, sleep, and work than is that really a life worth living? How can you make your life more worth living? How can you take time this week to rest your mind and rest your being so that you can be of more assistance to all of the people around you who need it...

Self-care is like a plane that drops the oxygen masks. When the masks are dropped, passengers are to put the mask on themselves before assisting children and infants.

Logically, if the adult put the mask on the child first and then passes out from lack of oxygen, who is there to put the mask on the adult? For you to help people and make a difference in this world, you must first be taking care of yourself. You must not make the world all about you; but, you must be tending to your physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional health daily because before you can help someone else, you must first put on the oxygen mask! That oxygen mask is rest in the Lord and trust in Him that even when you are tired and weary, even when you can not go anymore, He will give you rest!

Matthew 11:28

“Come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.”