Raising teenagers nearly bankrupted us… at the grocery store alone! My husband, being the creative type, decided to help our growing brood with their decision making.
Our resources were limited, and we had four teens who had no idea the intended purpose for the grocery items I had carefully planned out. “The Chart of Eating” adorned our fridge and often preserved costly groceries for family meals instead of midnight ravenous consumption.
In life, we also have limited resources. Physical energy runs out. Emotional energy drains us. Intellectual energy wanes. Even our spiritual energy weakens with weariness. We need to replenish, and rest is often similar to a shopping trip to stock up on those resources.
We also have a responsibility, though, to set boundaries to avoid others coming in and overspending our capital. Making decisions about where to spend those precious energies can prove difficult, and we need wisdom to discern where those efforts will be best spent.
Perhaps we need a flow chart for our friends and acquaintances… maybe that would work and maybe not, but more likely we need one for ourselves.
Some people have a rightful claim to my resources. I always care for and listen to my husband and the grandson in my charge. My adult children have access to my emotional resources, but even with them, I have to make choices. Do I need sleep to be wise in my counsel to them, for instance? Can their needs wait until I get that sleep?
Over the years, I’ve come to think that I need more attention to my own rest and that this rest, exemplified, by the way, in the sacred Sabbath, is possibly even more important than any help I may offer others without it.
With proper rest, we can aim those resources at the right place for their use and avoid the ravenous consumption that cripples us.
…and that’s the view from My Front Porch.
btw… the Chart of Eating is available in full on the store page at my Over the Bar Instruction website.