BY SHILA ANDERSON
I love summer. I love having my kids at home. I love not waking up early. I love swimming and sunbathing and relaxing. I love vacations and getting away from it all – from the overscheduled sports and dance and the work and the dishes! I love to unwind and take a break.
The problem is, when I’m in vacation mode, I tend to take a break from everything, including my quality time with God.
I’ve been feeling very dry, and I have had a lackadaisical summer feeling about everything and wondering why God hasn’t been showing up. God’s not going to just show up and help me along when all I’m doing is reading my Bible really quickly so I can check the box and start the day. The reason I’m feeling distant is because I’m distancing myself. My idea of being relaxed and taking a break is only making me stressed and edgy because I haven’t invited God to join me on my “days off.”
There is a way to take time off and still invite God to join you. In fact, the more we invite Him, the more relaxed we will be.
My Netflix binge watching maybe isn’t the best use of my time. And a few of those episodes are not so uplifting. Perhaps, I can skip that “one more episode” at midnight and actually get a good night sleep instead. Maybe, I should pray and ask God if this is really something I should be watching?
My kids love listening to the most current music, but I need to be diligent about putting my Christian radio stations on too. Did you ever listen to some of the words of those songs, on Radio Disney none-the-less? I need to be careful what I’m letting my children fill themselves with (even if they don’t understand what the lyrics mean) and filling myself with as I listen alongside them.
When leaving the house in the morning to do something fun, we should be inviting God to join us – to show us favor and be with us all day. When we try to do it on our own, it’s just exhausting.
There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. – Hebrews 4:9-10
We need to take time to rest. Let’s find time to rest in His presence. When we unplug from the world, we need to plug into Jesus. That’s the best rest we could ask for.
So ladies, let’s relax the remainder of this summer. Let’s enjoy the sun and the vacations and the not so rushed schedules. But, let’s not forget to invite God to join us in whatever we do. Let’s remember to put Him first and keep Him with us all day. Just because we are vacationing from work and dishes, doesn’t mean we need to take a break from God.