Back to School Devotional: Day 2
“If we do not regularly quit work for one day a week we take ourselves far too seriously. ”
Everything just got busier because, August.
But we don't have to live such hurried, crazy, and stressed out lives. We can choose what fills our day. What can choose how much margin we have and what activities our children can and cannot do. We can decide how we use our time, manage our lives, and the work schedules we negotiate.
So, if I may be so bold, can I suggest a truth that could be the biggest game changer of your school year?
Take one day off every week and rest. Watch how God provides for you.
Do not do anything that advances your work, your hustle, your life. Trust God and cease from striving after all the things. For a complete 24 hours. Take the day and enjoy family, friends, feasting. Play and be slow and do not do anything that is work to you.
What's that you say? You are WAY too busy and are VERY important? Yes, I know. I thought that too.
But can we talk about the gift of rest God created for us so that we can do our best work the other six days? Friends, we run so ragged, every single day. We are tired. We weren't made to perpetually work. God purposely gave us a gift of rest. This gift also comes with an opportunity to trust God to provide for all we need. We can cease the productivity, the accomplishing, the hustle. And God will provide for us.
If you trust Him, He will provide time and energy to get all the work done in the other six days. He is good like that.
This is not a new law or some kind of burden I am giving you. We are free from laws and God has shouldered burdens through Jesus. We are so very free. Let freedom reign.
Resting one day a week is simply taking God up on being God.
It is a gift from God and an opportunity to trust God that He is King. Of everything.
Take a minute to tell God why you find it hard to rest. Do you believe you cannot rest because everything rests on you? Do you find your value and worth in what you accomplish? Do you feel scared to put your phone down and rest from constant connection, except the connection right in front of you?
Truth AND Dare:
Truth: God says you can rest, friend. He's got it all.
Dare: Put "rest" on your calendar for one whole month, every 7 days or so. Try a one month experiment. Practice being a human being, not a human doing. Just be. Accomplish nothing. Do not make a to-do list for that day. Practice trusting God when details flood your mind and pray, "You will take care of all of these. I trust you."
“No working on the Sabbath; keep it holy just as God, your God, commanded you. Work six days, doing everything you have to do, but the seventh day is a Sabbath, a Rest Day—no work: not you, your son, your daughter, your servant, your maid, your ox, your donkey (or any of your animals), and not even the foreigner visiting your town. That way your servants and maids will get the same rest as you. Don’t ever forget that you were slaves in Egypt and God, your God, got you out of there in a powerful show of strength. That’s why God, your God, commands you to observe the day of Sabbath rest.”
*For more on the gift of the Sabbath: read Eugene Peterson's article and check out resting with a family as well as the book "Keeping the Sabbath Wholly" by Marva Dawn.