Thursday, March 3, 2011

Time Out



[caption id="" align="alignright" width="240" caption="Image by Slideshow Bruce via Flickr"]country road[/caption]


As a former elementary, special education teacher and at one point a mom of a young son (who is now a teen) I know about time out. I could always tell when a child needed a time out. That wasn't necessarily a bad thing.... most times the child just needed some time away. Time to sit in the beanbag chair and stare out the window. Time to lay down and close one's eyes. Time to breathe. Time to rest.

Why is it always easier to tell when someone else needs a time out to rest and regroup? When it comes to myself, I am terrible about this. Sigh.

I thought when I remarried, after five years of widowhood, that it would be easier. I was going to be able to stay home, home school the children of my now blended family, do the daily household tasks and still have time to rest. Uh huh. What world was I living in? Certainly not reality.

Rest. What is that?

And yet, rest it is something that I crave. I want. I need.

Jesus knows this. He says to each of us, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28)

If you are anything like me, you have been led to believe that resting is nonproductive. I could be accomplishing something, instead of resting. I have a mountain of laundry to get done, I need to get the dishes out of the dishwasher, my son needs help with Algebra, my daughter needs to complete her history report, the dog needs brushed, the carpet needs vacuumed, I have a blog to finish and what in the world am I fixing for dinner?!

Rest.

I live in a beautiful part of the country. In 2009 my husband and I moved our family to rural Ohio. He works remotely so we could pick anywhere to live. We picked the country. My favorite place is our front porch. I love to settle down in the Adirondack chair and look down our driveway and across the road. Our neighbors have llamas and I enjoy watching them graze. The baby llamas look like huge, fluffy cotton balls. I can see deer in the field that is diagonal from our property. There is a bright red barn in the distance. The sun blazes across the horizon on that end of the house...and in the evening the sky turns shades of purple and blue. I hear the train whistle in the distance and I hear a dog's muffled bark.

Time slows for me. I breathe deeply.

Rest. Renewal.

Time alone. Time with God. Time to rest in Him.

As I look down our country road this verse comes to my mind....

Jeremiah 6:16  This is what the Lord says: "Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls."

Join me over at The Faith Barista Jam. (Click on the link on the right side of my page) This month we are talking about rest. Don't we all need that?

7 comments:

  1. I think often rest is hard because we feel like when we take a breather , we get to get up and do twice as much work ! It is so hard to slow the pace and watch all the work pile up. :( I get rest when the kids are sick and I need to be parked at home ( or in the hospital ) with them. I think that's why God created the "virus" ... It slows us down. Makes us stop...

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  2. Taking time out to rest has been a topic on my mind lately. Goes to show that God does want us to slow down a little and enjoy the beauty and blessings that he gives us. Your porch sounds so relaxing!

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  3. Thank you for sharing. Even in the rural area, I find ourselves running with much . . . adding animals into the picture! It's making a special point to REST!

    Thanks for sharing!

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  4. Wouldn't it be great if we always knew when to take a time out? I miss my own cues sometimes.

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  5. I can relate. It’s times like this when life feels overwhelming I’d like to be a kid, no responsibilities, no worries, let someone else cook my meals, do my laundry, clean the house. It’s true a woman’s work is never done even for the modern day woman. Great post!

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  6. I don't think I've ever really thought about that Jeremiah verse. Thank you for sharing. As a parent and substitute teacher I completely understand when you say some kids need that time out and it's not necessarily a bad thing. Unfortunately I don't think our educational systems understand the need children have for this. The pressure the children and teachers are under to perform better and better isn't necessarily healthy. Oops. Sorry for going off on that tangent. Great post!

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