Tired of Being Tired

It is another full day of managing my little people. Their vibrance inspires me and drives me to work harder to meet their needs and give them the best education possible. The needs of these students are vast and many days I feel overwhelmed about even being able to even make a dent in all that needs to be done.

I come home tired – a good tired, mind you, after a busy day at school. But then I look around my home and see all the things left undone. I go from a massive to do list at work to another one in my own household. I feel perplexed as to how to meet all these expectations and to keep myself healthy and happy in the process.

Do your days resemble mine? Are the expectations and to do lists dominating your life choices? Do you feel like you are never enough to meet the needs of those around you and preserve your own well-being?

I could spout off long and eloquent about various stress relieving tactics and time management strategies. But is that really what we need? I don’t think so.

We cannot have a life of balance unless we do one simple thing – put our trust in God and put Him foremost in our lives. What does that mean?

It means that our choices need to be bathed in prayer. We need to continually seek where God needs us to use our time each day. Some of them are obvious of course – caring for a child, feeding our family, keeping up with a place of employment, etc., but others choices bear careful weighing of options and we need God’s guidance to do what is healthy for us.

In this life there are many possibilities of how to use our time, talents, and resources. Each day we are faced with decisions and usually that means that something gets left undone. For me, that generates feelings of failure when I cannot seem to manage all that I think I should.

Really, I am being too hard on myself – as many of us are. If we truly, prayerfully consider all the options we have in a day I think we will find that many things really do not need to be on our plates.

Jesus is just asking us to rest in Him. His words to us are clear:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30 NIV)

I have read these verses many times in my life. Funny that I can read them and then go out and overburden myself with the cares of this world. Can you relate?

Dear friends, Jesus is asking you to believe in Him…to trust Him explicitly…to let Him hold you in the palm of His hand. He knows what struggles each of us faces to manage day to day life. He knows that we daily face a myriad of choices in how to use our time.

He is asking us to chill and not to stress so much about things that don’t matter.

I know, that is easier said than done. I struggle with this regularly. But we have hope when we read these verses from Matthew. Jesus asks that we learn from Him. The same Jesus that sat and taught and encouraged Mary to sit and listen and chastised her sister for Martha for being too worried about meal preparations is also the one who took time to minister to many and touch them where they needed.

He definitely demonstrated the preference of people over things; of time spent in prayer in recharge; of being in the Word; and of keeping God’s will in focus.

As we enter a new week, I hope that we can each think about what we can rest in Jesus and seek to approach life as He did. It is transforming when we get off the endless wheel of demands and instead focus on what truly matters.

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