Sunday Snippet: Project Rest…

I sense the end of the year is rushing towards us at a crazy speed… The shops have become crazy and the traffic insane. The kids have all sorts of end of year activities building up. The father person has meeting after meeting in the evenings – every single committee and board, association whatever seems to have an end of year function. Weekends have been crazy with things “that must be done,” all sorts of “command performances.” And every single person is talking about the pressure of Christmas. Since when did Christmas become a pressure… isn’t it the season to celebrate the birth of Jesus? A joyful time. He never required dozens of decorations, palatial parties, gargantuan gifts and stress… STRESS!!!

While our family is a little crazy right now, I don’t have end of year commitments. I am the behind the scenes player that gets the kids where they have to be in black trousers and ironed shirts; And the father person off to his meetings timeously, no matter what we have been doing all day, dinner must be done and he must be out the door.

I must be honest, I had so many good intentions this year… I was going to exercise more, eat more healthfully, drink plenty of water and above all rest. I had a pretty good start, many mornings began by eating the frog… and towing my kids up a couple of bazillion stairs but honestly, just not enough… The stairs and I were never friends… and trips to gym very quickly became a chance to blog with a coffee while the kids worked out. And as for rest – you may read that as a GALACTIC FAIL…

Now we have a couple of weeks before the end of the year… a couple of weeks where bloggers are going to be writing about the best Christmas, the easiest Christmas, the simplest Christmas… the most incredible dinner and the quickest gifting… and I am all for that… but, just blink again and absolutely thousands of bloggers will be blogging about New Years Resolutions… Christmas will be packed away in boxes and placed in the back of closets for another year… and everyone will get busy with their new year and new efforts. The gym will be packed and endless to-do lists will be written… and another year of extreme busyness-will be in play. Why are we so obsessed with being busy… getting just one more thing done on our list before bed-time and then getting up early, to get even more things done… being productive and then even more productive has become the ultimate badge of success…

And this is the problem with this strange and crazy time of year – we know what we should be celebrating and yet we all tend to go a little insane… At the end of the year when we have done enough already we start to think about adding one or two new traditions to our old traditions; stressing as we search for the most perfect gift, double booking our calendars, when we should have said no… And very often we enter the new year, not rested and ready for action… but worn out and frazzled. The question is do we have to do it all, when we have so clearly been invited to to rest?

After weeks of sick kids and the end of year frenzy – I must say I am feeling a little weary… and I am quite ready to embrace the promise in this Bible verse… Summer has finally crept up on us… it is glorious, sunny and we have long playful evenings to look forward too. I am of the firm belief that it is never too late, to remedy my failings for the year… so over the next couple of weeks I am going to be resting. The one thing I completely failed to achieve this year. One thing I cannot really work on in my own strength because I am hopeless at just relaxing and can always see one more thing that needs doing!!!

Who do I think I am, thinking I can do it all, when clearly I have a Father in Heaven, who is more capable than I can dream of and who will ensure all our needs are met and then some. For my family I am taking the lead and insisting on afternoon naps and a lazy walk everyday… My to-do list has become a to-don’t list… and I am breathing plenty of blank time into our schedule…