Who Gets The Best Of You?

I had a season of my life where I needed to wake up extremely early in the mornings because my first meeting at work started at 4 AM. I was overseeing the night shift, and I met with the overnight supervisor at the end of their shift. Now, I am not a super early riser by nature. With six kids at home and a wife, it was tough to go to bed early and still have quality time with my family. So, I would routinely stay up until 10:30 PM or 11 PM and then wake up the next day around 3 AM.

I was in my late 30's at the time and thought I could maintain the sleep schedule that I existed on in my 20's. It was naive, foolish and it taught me a valuable lesson about the importance of maintaining healthy rest. It took an honest conversation with my wife to realize that the version of myself I was giving to my family was not the best. I would wake up early, spend all my energy at work and then come home on fumes. By 7 PM, I was consistently irritable, impatient and a bit grumpy.

We all are not the best version of ourselves when we reach the point of exhaustion, and it is an excellent tactic Satan uses to kill our joy. To combat this, we have the Bible to use as a great example of staying rested both physically and spiritually. Our God gives us the greatest example of rest. In Genesis 2:2, after God completed all of creation, the scripture says He rested on the 7th day. Throughout the Gospels, we see examples of Jesus going to a place to be alone and pray (Luke 5:16, Mark 6:46, Mark 1:35).

Rest is not being lazy or slothful. Instead, resting allows us time to recharge and refresh. Another way to look at this is resting is investing in your marriage and family. Choosing to rest means that you say no to everything else to have the mental, physical and emotional energy for what is truly important to you.