rest

My dear husband took some time off work this week. In the last month, I have also been debating about taking a rest from the schedule which I have been working hard to keep up with in the last year: homeschool, leadership in my co-op group, Arabic lessons, piano lessons, writing classes, history classes, bible study, worship team, teaching children's church, gymnastics, tennis, climbing, etc. I'm positive that my schedule is not unusual, but rather characteristic of most families living in the Western World today. We are busy learning, growing, developing our talents, passions and relationships.
What place does rest have in this pursuit?
Hoe do you justify rest when every waking moment seems claimed by one pressing need or another? How do you prioritize when giving priority to one area often means letting go of another for a time? What do you do when you wake up one morning and you just don't want to get out of bed because you are so weary of the schedule that demands more from you than you feel you are willing to give- when you wake up and realize you're not sure where you are, what you are doing, and why you are doing it.
These are some of the things I've been thinking of in the last few weeks because I am tired. Weary. Grumpy. Irritated. Frustrated. These are not qualities that I set out to nurture, in myself or in my kids. Yet these feelings have been with me in the last month or so, and as I reflect them, so they become mirrored in my children.
Then continues the downspiral in emotions.
So I have decided that I need to make changes, to actually exit this "hamster wheel" rather than attempt to outrun it.
I called my Arabic tutor and told her I was taking a break for a time. Piano lessons have been suspended. School is winding down in the next week or so, and I've decided that instead of making my children complete every single worksheet, I'd give them only the exercises that they are still working to master, not the ones they already get. I'm trying to be more effective, rather than efficient.
We have rested this week as a family. We drove to Aqaba earlier in the week, which has been our getaway destination when the dust and business of Amman get to be too much. When we need to breathe, relax and play.
And as I rest, I am aware of His hand in my life again, I start again to talk to Him about my life rather than to just go through the motions, and I am beginning to see again.
I read through God's declaration of the seventh day being set aside as a Sabbath rest. This command was first expressed in Genesis, then Exodus in the ten commandments, then again, throughout the Old and New Testaments. I've been a teacher long enough to understand that when something is really important, it is repeated over and over again. And I pondered about why God, who doesn't have a body or soul that needs rest or restoration, would actually take a rest. He has no physical need of rest. Yet He did. And it says in Exodus that God rested and was refreshed. If the God of the universe is willing to stop His all-important work to rest, then I, being the weak and frail one that I am, should doubtlessly take this Sabbath rest.
When I rest in Christ, I am refreshed. When I'm refreshed, I start to see again, feel again, dream again. I take my gaze off my navel and look up and out to a broader vision of my life, my family, of His Kingdom.
It's not easy to rest. Everything in me wants to keep moving, accomplishing, working. It takes faith to rest. I need to trust that when I rest, He will help me to accomplish all that I need to do in six days.