Girl's Girl's Club Memories
Sometime about 12 years ago when I was so exhausted and somewhat ill, a doctor said, "You can kill yourself if you want to, but if you want to live well for years to come, you need to take responsibility for your health--no one else will!
I began to realize that for many years I had exhausted myself and given so much that I had gotten to the danger point. At this particular point, Joy had nocturnal asthma and was up 1-2 hours every night, Sarah had an unusual illness, Clay was gone 3-4 days a week and still every day everyone had to eat, wear reasonable clean clothes and needed my attention. Plus it was the beginning of the growth of our new ministry and I was in the thick of homeschooling. So how was I going to make my life different?
1. Change my schedule to fill my own needs--since I am the well from which everyone draws all the time, I needed to be sure my well was being regularly filled back up. Rethinking how to center my life was essential.
2. Cutting out of my schedule those things that people wanted from me and that life seemed to call forth from me--but that weren't essential--always hard to figure out--I have a hard time saying no. But there are meetings, lessons, "experiences" and always people wanting my attention. Had to realize that I could not have integrity in my messages if there was no integrity in my life. So, though I would love to meet all the needs I see out there, I have to get used to the fact that I will never, never be able to get everything done I would like to, and so I have to choose to ignore some things in order to attend to the most important things (My walk with the Lord and quiet time, my physical body, my husband, my children, then my ministry)
3. Added regular exercise to my life to get rid of my high adrenalin--high stress in my life and much of it dealt with by exercise--plus it is how I discipled Sarah--she walked with me every morning-2-3 miles.
4. Watching my diet more carefully--lots of fruit and vegetables and salads and nuts with some occasional "bad" stuff-but weighing in on the 75% healthy side that my naturalist suggested and 25% splurge--(traveling demands that I be flexible and we love to celebrate life--Sundays is mainly the day for our family!)
5. Reading and filling my mind from other mature believer's lives.
6. Simplify, simplify, simplify all of life.
7. Sabbath rest--always take Sundays off to rest, have fun, fellowship, worship and let everything rest until Monday--it is still there.
This is what I am doing now. I have had some real fulfilling months and yet very taxing. But this week is about dropping everything. For one, my darlings need just me with no interruption-(means I am not answering phone calls unless they are from family); not doing email or blogs except when I have totally undistracted and alone time--which is not very often; no work unless it has to be done on a deadline. Fun, building memories, having long, needed talks with my girls, honoring my relationship with them above anything else, sleeping, walking and playing on beach and keeping in mind my Sabbath to the Lord--He can take care of all of the demands--if I don't observe these days of planned Sabbath for my soul, I will not be prepared for anything else--He and His ways must come first if I am going to make it this year!
Fun memories from this week!
Sunset in the desert!