Is it even possible to REST anytime between now and the holidays? Thanksgiving is a week from this Thursday. Christmas is a month and a few days away. And a lot of the people I’ve talked to recently share a mixture of excitement and STRESS! There’s so much to do! But it’s such a wonderful season! We want to do it all, enjoy it all, but somehow end up frazzled and exhausted instead of merry and bright.
So how do we make it through the holidays in one holly jolly piece? I believe the answer is REST.
Rest, Faith & the Holidays
The holidays for me are a time to celebrate God’s goodness. To give Him thanks at Thanksgiving. Rejoice in His birth at Christmas. Spend time with family and friends, sing favorite songs and enjoy traditional foods that fill our bellies and warm our hearts.
But it’s way too easy to get caught up in the blur of ALL THE THINGS WE HAVE TO DO … that we miss the best part of the holidays.
So this year, that’s what I’m hoping to do with this 101 Days till Christmas Countdown – keep our hearts on track to celebrate and enjoy the season with more JOY and PEACE and less stress.
I hope these thoughts on rest help us remember to make time to take breaks as often as needed. Let’s prioritize peace, find time to watch those favorite movies and bake those family tradition recipes!
Thoughts on Rest Before the Holidays
If God rested, so should we.
Have you ever thought of that? A lot of times, at least in my experience, we don’t rest because we just have too much to do. You may work a full time job, get home to do chores and spend time on the weekend catching up on cleaning. Rest? Ain’t nobody got time for that.
But we have to make time for it. If we don’t, we’ll burnout. Just ask anyone who’s gotten to that point. I’ve hit moments of burnout throughout my life where you just can’t think straight, you’re tired, short-tempered and you just wish you could jump off the hamster spinning wheel that is your life.
Before we get to that point (or now if you feel like that’s where you are), it’s definitely time to hit the pause button and rest.
The Hard Break
One book that has helped me immensely to try to figure out HOW TO REST, is The Hard Break by Aaron Edelheit. He sums it up perfectly: “What if the real secret to greater productivity, happiness and success is a habit that is thousands of years old? “
That habit that Aaron talks about is the Sabbath, a command in the Bible that we find in the Ten Commandments. It’s basically a command to rest on the seventh day, or some people believe it’s once a week.
I wrote about taking a hard break myself and it made a HUGE difference in my life.
(My Amazon affiliate link is below, so if you click I may get a small comission at no extra cost to YOU!
God rested … we should, too
I mentioned it above, but it’s worth repeating. If the Creator of the universe, the Alpha and Omega, beginning and end, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, our God, took time to rest when He finished the work of creation, whatever work we’re doing that is too important to stop … we need to stop.
It’s healthy to stop. It’s necessary to rest.
I love that Inc.com even shared 12 scientific reasons a day of rest works.
Believe it or not, taking time to rest, making it a priority, actually boosts your immune system, plus it reduces inflammation and the risk of heart disease.
(I personally love it when science backs up something in the Bible!)
“So the creation of the heavens and the earth and everything in them was completed. 2 On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested[a] from all his work. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation.” Genesis 2:1-3 NLT, Biblegateway.com
Let’s take a page from the Holy Book itself, the Bible, and make sure that this week we block out some time to rest.
Laughing thru life,
Coppelia
