“Yeah right…” you’re thinking.

“When I get everything done, THEN I’ll take the day off.”

Ever said that…to your boss, your family, yourself?

Have you ever been so exhaustedly tired that you can’t remember what you did last week, last night, 5 minutes ago?  If you’re like me, I’ve been there done that many times.  Sometimes WAY too many times.

More and more information and work seems to be coming our way.  We get so caught up in answering our emails, texting, updating our status and checking our friends’, tweeting our tweets, reading others’ tweets, retweeting, making online connections, pinning pins and repining, insta-photoing, checking-in.  The list goes on and on.  And we make excuses in our work.  Just 5 more minutes and I’ll stop working on this.  5 hours later, we’re still finishing up that ONE more thing…and then we promise we’ll be done.

Ever since I can remember, I’ve been involved in everything and anything I could get my hands on.  I’m a very social person and love to meet new people.  I’m that “social butterfly” flying around that everyone keeps talking about.  If I’m not doing something, I feel like I’m not being productive.  Like I’m lacking in or missing out on something.  Always on the go.  Never really taking the time to “stop and smell the roses.”

This weekend, our pastor talked about something we’ve all heard about, and know about, but may not have actually stopped long enough to understand the concept or meaning.  He talked about the Sabbath.

We’ve heard the story.  God created Heavens and the Earth, light and dark, stars, animals, man.  And then crazily enough, after doing all that work, He rested.  It says in Genesis 2:2-3, “on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.  Then He blessed the seventh day and sanctified it.”   It was so important to God that we rest one out of the seven days of the week, that He even made it one of the 10 Commandments.  Did you know that or even remember that?  It’s true…look up Exodus 20:8-11.  It’s right there.  Black and white.

If you gather too much or work too much, it will rot.  Your work will only get worse.  It will get messy.  Because you are not resting your body.  That’s why we get sick.  We push ourselves so hard that we aren’t allowing our bodies to rejuvenate and restore itself.  It’s just like the farmers do with their fields.  Every seven years, they let their fields rest.  When they do this, they are allowing the soil to rest and recover from the last six years of hard labor, in which the farmers, and really the soil, are able to produce more crop than the years they turn and work the soil.  It’s studied and proven.

God cares for us more than the earth and soil and flowers.  So if the soil needs rest, how much more do we?  He cares for us so much than them that He gave us the Sabbath for our benefit.  Mark 2:27 says, that “the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.”  God made the Sabbath to serve us.  Pastor Morris stated in his sermon that “if you aren’t resting one day a week, you are dying quicker than you were meant to be.”

We need to be taking one day of the week to rest.  To have our Sabbath.  It’s crucial.  It’s needed.  It’s law.

I’ve realized this now more than ever.  I’ve looked at my life, what it’s included, my pattern in life, my weeks, my days.  I’ve been so wrapped up in work, in being involved in everything, trying to do everything, spend time with everyone.  I’ve seen just how important it is to take a day off during the week to rest.  For myself.  For my health.  Putting my phone down.  Turning off my computer.  Resting.  Relaxing.  And maybe, just maybe, even taking a nap…

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