On Rest and Mood

This is not any kind of great insight, but simply a realization I had this morning. I just had two nights in a row where both my wife and I were present to take care of the kids and get them to bed. Reading, catechism, prayers, etc. It is the first time we’ve had that for two nights in a row in WEEKS. AND we get to do it again tonight.

Wow.

I can just feel myself relax and settle into the normalcy of life when such things happen. I feel like I have been wound up since before Lent, and that things are just now starting to rebound and come down to the usual chaos.

It is so important to simply have time to be a family, to gather together, to sing and pray, play outside, chase around, and do whatever you do in your family. I am grounded when these things happen. My mood improves, my patience improves, everything is better.

But I can’t see that when I don’t have it. I get so obsessed with GETTING STUFF DONE that I forget who I am as a child of God, as a husband and father and pastor and neighbor, etc.

Be at peace, friends. Get some rest. Don’t try to get everything done, for you may lose yourself in a series of tasks that seem important at the time, but ultimately don’t really matter.

-DMR

8 thoughts on “On Rest and Mood”

  1. I've been thinking about this post since yesterday morning. I know exactly what you mean about the improvements that come when you're not overly busy. When I can "just" cook supper and do laundry and do schoolwork with my kids and go to chapel, without any big projects or out-of-town errands, my mood is so much better.

    But the thing I'm struggling with is what to do when living that kind of life isn't possible. When there are health concerns in your extended family and you need to be at the hospital with them, you need to make those trips to take care of your parents. When your husband loses his job and you need to be looking at taking on a job in addition to all the duties that keep already keep you busy 14 hours a day, then how do you avoid going into the "But I gotta get stuff done!!" mode? What do you do when too much time by yourself makes you start to get mopey and lose your perspective, but going to visit your [not exactly local] friends is physically tiring? I know it's tremendously important for me to learn not to try to Do It All, but I just don't know how when I've already cut out so many of my commitments and responsibilities.

  2. I've been thinking about this post since yesterday morning. I know exactly what you mean about the improvements that come when you're not overly busy. When I can "just" cook supper and do laundry and do schoolwork with my kids and go to chapel, without any big projects or out-of-town errands, my mood is so much better.

    But the thing I'm struggling with is what to do when living that kind of life isn't possible. When there are health concerns in your extended family and you need to be at the hospital with them, you need to make those trips to take care of your parents. When your husband loses his job and you need to be looking at taking on a job in addition to all the duties that keep already keep you busy 14 hours a day, then how do you avoid going into the "But I gotta get stuff done!!" mode? What do you do when too much time by yourself makes you start to get mopey and lose your perspective, but going to visit your [not exactly local] friends is physically tiring? I know it's tremendously important for me to learn not to try to Do It All, but I just don't know how when I've already cut out so many of my commitments and responsibilities.

  3. Dear DMR & Susan-

    You both are right and I very much appreciate your comments/perspective. this may seem like a strange addendum, but I found this so encouraging that I wanted to share it for I think in an odd sort of way, it speaks to being able to 'Rest' in the midst of chaos/difficulty.:

    " For three years now, I have battled wild Morning Glory vines in my back yard. They root deeper and grow faster than crabgrass. They grow beneath my barriers and up the stems of every plant I have, then choke the life out of them. I can weed them one day and they’ll be back with a vengeance the next day. I’ve even covered them in mulch in hopes of smothering them. I’ve dug, tossed and dug till I’m wearied with their continual growth. I was ready to give up and let them have their way in my flowerbeds. I was beginning to think that pristine beds of mums, daisies, lavendar and roses just aren’t worth my time or effort. "Then I thought about myself".
    "What if God felt that way about me? Every time He weeds out something in my life, something else sprouts and begins to grow. I will never be perfect this side of heaven; none of us will. Yet, unlike me, God never gives up. Nor would He think of it. He knows what He wants to make of my life. He knows what He wants to accomplish through me. And He will dig till He gets to the root of my problems. He will weed out the things that seek to destroy His vision for me until I am complete."
    “And I am convinced and sure of this very thing, that He Who began a good work in you will continue until the day of Jesus Christ [right up to the time of His return], developing [that good work] and perfecting and bringing it to full completion in you.” Philippians 1:6
    by:copyrighted, 2009, SelahVToday, hariette petersen]
    from: TonyKummer@gmail.com"
    I hope this proves to be encouraging for you.
    -HveHope

  4. Dear DMR & Susan-

    You both are right and I very much appreciate your comments/perspective. this may seem like a strange addendum, but I found this so encouraging that I wanted to share it for I think in an odd sort of way, it speaks to being able to 'Rest' in the midst of chaos/difficulty.:

    " For three years now, I have battled wild Morning Glory vines in my back yard. They root deeper and grow faster than crabgrass. They grow beneath my barriers and up the stems of every plant I have, then choke the life out of them. I can weed them one day and they’ll be back with a vengeance the next day. I’ve even covered them in mulch in hopes of smothering them. I’ve dug, tossed and dug till I’m wearied with their continual growth. I was ready to give up and let them have their way in my flowerbeds. I was beginning to think that pristine beds of mums, daisies, lavendar and roses just aren’t worth my time or effort. "Then I thought about myself".
    "What if God felt that way about me? Every time He weeds out something in my life, something else sprouts and begins to grow. I will never be perfect this side of heaven; none of us will. Yet, unlike me, God never gives up. Nor would He think of it. He knows what He wants to make of my life. He knows what He wants to accomplish through me. And He will dig till He gets to the root of my problems. He will weed out the things that seek to destroy His vision for me until I am complete."
    “And I am convinced and sure of this very thing, that He Who began a good work in you will continue until the day of Jesus Christ [right up to the time of His return], developing [that good work] and perfecting and bringing it to full completion in you.” Philippians 1:6
    by:copyrighted, 2009, SelahVToday, hariette petersen]
    from: TonyKummer@gmail.com"
    I hope this proves to be encouraging for you.
    -HveHope

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