A day of rest seems like an easy thing doesn’t it? One day out of all 7 days to take a break. For some reason, this is SO hard! I think self-employed people, such as photographers, find this especially hard as there is not necessarily an end time to our work day- there are always things to do! And if you’re a parent, it is even worse – Cleaning, packing lunches, picking up toys, going to birthday parties, making lists, making meals, doing what’s on the lists….there are never enough hours in a day! If you’re a bride – you probably feel like you are working 2-3 jobs!
Matt & I are entrepreneurs at heart – As soon as there is a moment of slowing down, there is suddenly new big projects and huge dreams to start working on! Relaxing is really hard for us.
The Bible has a lot of great advice and one that I’ve seen mentioned A LOT is keeping the sabbath day holy- in other words, preserve a a day of rest! For many years, I lumped it into the category of an “old rule” and not applicable today, but more and more I’m realizing that in our fast-paced world with crazy busy schedules and a go! go! go! mentalities, we need it more than ever!
I love Lysa TerKeust’s take on it: “The Bible makes it very clear that we are to honor the Sabbath day and pursue rest. Literally we are to hit the pause button on life once a week and guard our need to rest. Guard it fiercely. Guard it intentionally. Guard it even if our schedules beg us to do otherwise”. Whether you believe in God or not, rest is good for you. Our bodies need rest physically, mentally and spiritually. Do you ever find when you are working, that if you take a break, you get recharged and work even better! We need to make the time to do this as it is important to our health and our relationships. If you do believe in and have a relationship with God, you can get even more out of your time of rest. You will realize that spending that time with Him, can be so rich and rewarding as he actively guides your life and your decisions, while giving you an overwhelming peace and joy.
WHERE?
I encourage you when you take a day off or even a morning off, and get out of your house. Go for a walk or go somewhere quiet and just relax. Go on an adventure with your family. I find if I’m at home, there are way too many messes to clean, emails to check and phone calls to take.
WHEN?
This is up to each person individually, but for us, we’ve been trying throughout this year to schedule one day of rest and that for us, is typically Fridays. Ideally, we are not supposed to do any work, check emails etc on this day, but think we both needed this reminder 🙂
WHY?
We already talked about this, but the reason we need a moment, a day or two of rest is to recharge our batteries! We need get away from the clutter in our lives, the non-stop status updates in the facebook world, the never-ending to do list and instead – to rest, reflect and rejuvenate! Even though it doesn’t make sense to take a break when there are still things to do, it makes so much sense and is worth it! You are allowed to take a break.
HOW?
Schedule your day off or even your night off on your calendar! It is important to put it in writing or you won’t do it! We have our calendar blocked off on Fridays and if we have a wedding on a Friday, we change our day off to a different day that week. It may even help to plan something those days – like go to the zoo with your family or meet with a friend for coffee or work on a hobby you’ve been wanting to do. Maybe if you’re lucky, it could involve sleeping in and having a lazy morning watching a movie in bed! Oh what it would be like with no kids! 🙂
Also, have someone hold you accountable! Ask a friend to check in with you to make sure you are taking a break.
Being on your phone may be relaxing, but it is amazing the difference you feel when “relaxing” with your phone or computer verses when you step away from the constant status updates and emails. The world will probably not end if you take a day off from work and if you can’t handle it – we sometimes give ourselves permission to check things 2-3 times a day. We are going to be working on this in the fall- staying off our phones on our day of rest and just investing our time in our relationships with the ones we love most!
Today we went to the pumpkin patch and are going to have a family movie night! Hope you have time to rest and rejuvenate this weekend! To all the Canadians- Happy Thanksgiving!
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