Toddlers spinning circles

So, two nights ago Micah was up 5 different times.  Once he said the rain was too noisy, then his "knees hurt" as he pointed to his ankles, then he just wanted to say "hi", the other two times I was too comatose to even know what was going on.  Yesterday I was a walking zombie of tiredness.  Micah though, was a wound up ball of energy.  Bouncing off the walls was the most low key thing he did all day.  By evening he was running in circles dancing and jumping uncontrollably.  All I could do was shake my head and point to his bed.  "Go!", I said with every last ounce of kindness I had left. 

 

As I reclined on the couch eating dinner I started to realize something.  I am Micah.  I am that child who has had way too little sleep and can't even recognize it because I am so busy running around like a crazy person who has had too many cups of coffee!  God, well, he is the mom just shaking his head at me pointing to the bed.  God realized I was not ready to hear the hard truth. He didn't give me a long lecture about how rest is important and necessary to function properly.  He didn't strap me to the bed and say "stay put until your rested!".   He just kept loving me in my state of crazy. 

Then I thought about my middle child Lydia.  She asked me last night if she could sleep in until lunch today because she was tired.  She recognized her exhaustion....she may have over exaggerated the amount of sleep she needed (she was up by 7am)...but she identified the need.  In Isaiah 28:12-13 it says,
                  "...."This is the resting place, let the weary rest." and "This is the place of repose" but they
                   would not listen.  So the word of the LORD will become: Do and do, do and do, rule on
                    rule, rule on rule, a little here, a little there - so that they will go and fall backward, be
                    injured and snared and captured."

Can I make a confession?  Many times I am more like Micah and less like Lydia when it comes to rest.  I act as though I am this great martyr laying myself down on the alter of absolute exhaustion in the name of Ministry.  I extend myself well beyond my capable boundaries and push every limit there is for the sake of getting things done.  I stay up late at night and get up early in the morning and everybody in my path has to pay for it.  The crazy grumpy mommy/wife is on the prowl and will start spinning circles when anything comes close.  She is too busy.  She is too overloaded. 

 

But do you know what is crazy?!  God never asked me to do it.  In fact just the opposite!  God lays out very clearly in his 10 commandments we are to take a Sabbath, a day of rest.  Every week.  Not just twice a year vacations, not just when it is convenient.  Nope.  God said do it and do it every week.  So after our Christmas programs were over in December our family took off two weeks to just rest.  It had been over a month and a half since anyone had had a day off and if we were being honest it had been quite a long time since anyone had consistently had a day off each week.  We were exhausted and not much use to anyone. 

During this two week break I really enjoyed waking up and spending time in the word.  I think one of the big warning signs of not getting enough rest is when I am too busy to even read scripture.  It's like a big red light going off with sirens saying "Hey!  This is not good!  Slow down!!"  So during my break I was reading through Isaiah and I came across verses like the one above.  I also came across verses like Isaiah 30:15 that says, "In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.",  and Isaiah 33:2 that says, "Be our strength every morning, our salvation in time of distress." 

It was not very difficult to see the point God was trying to make.  As I put Micah to bed last night I reminded him that sleep was a good thing.  I told him that he needed rest and to make good choices about going to sleep.  I also told him that if he woke up in the morning and was still tired that he should roll over and go back to sleep. 

I am pretty sure my Heavenly Father has been saying the same thing to my heart.  Rest child!  If you wake up and your tired, seek more rest.  And so this year one of my goals is to plan to rest.  I decided to come up with a work/homeschool schedule that includes rest.  Its right there on the schedule. DAY OFF it says right on my calendar.  Each week like a spoon full of medicine its there.  And as I take those days off you know what has started to happen?  The days that are not my day off have become much more productive.  My mind is rested so that I can accomplish more daily.  My dishes are done before I go to bed and not glaring at me as I make the morning coffee.  My bible studies that I am teaching are planned out and prepared instead of "fly by the seat of my pants" method.  God is doing the work instead of me trying to do it all.  Its how it was meant to be.  And do you know what?!  Its full of peace. 

I have recognized the value in what Lydia spoke to me the other night.  I see the tired and I call it what it is.  I take time to rest.  And even though I don't sleep in until lunch, I do have a set time daily that my work needs to be done by.  I have a bedtime.  Why?  Because although I cannot control what time Micah's crazy alarm clock brain will wake up I can decide when I will go to bed so that rest is found.  As I have heard many times before, "If God took a day off after creating the world, surely I am no greater than He."