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A recent post from my previous website, www.simplycomplexmom.blogspot.com, and one I thought would be great to share with those busy and amazing women and mommas out there… Do you ever feel like you are participating in a real-life game of “Red-Light, Green-Light”? Like you go-and-go-and-go-and-go-and-go, until something stops you square in your tracks. And when that red light suddenly shows up with all its Rudolphish glory, there you are, totally out of your element. Lost. Undirected.
Red lights can show up in our lives in countless forms. Not feeling well. Sick children. Losing a job. Moving. An injury. The loss of a loved one. Events and circumstances that are out of our control, but that drive us to the pursuit of creating an even tighter grip on life’s reigns. This afternoon, I hit my first red light in weeks. I was cruising through a sea of green, and then b.a.m., hello, red. I felt exhausted. I had rolled through last week on seven days of 5-6 hours of sleep each night. Running around. Preparing for events. Offering my help anywhere and everywhere I could. Taking care of my three sweet little tots. Who just happened to wake up with this morning with a whole new kind of junk rearing its ugly head. And so, the 8:00 A.M. phone call was made to the doctor’s office, and Monkey and Baby Nugget joined me on a mid-morning trip to gets ears, noses and throats checked. I should have stayed home. But to be honest, it is so. much. more. work to try and be at home than it is to just push on through and be at school. Sub plans = quadruple overtime, without the extra pay, but with all the extra headache. So, I dropped off my two sick sweeties to join their big sister, and to work I went. With a massive amount of guilt. And a body telling me that I am in serious need of some rest myself. But I wasn’t listening. Green light, right?!
That is, until about 2:00, when I felt as though I could happily curl up under my desk and go to sleep right then and there. At the drop of a hat. But I didn’t. Because that’s not real life. So, I soldiered on. Red light flashing in my face. Wearing my color-blind shades. Because I didn’t want to have to stop. There is no time for stopping…
…or is there? I would gesture to say that even God would agree that there is time for stopping… “…and on the seventh day, He rested and was refreshed…” (Exodus 31:17) And that maybe…every once in a while…just sometimes…our “seventh” day falls on a Tuesday (staying home with a crew of sick kiddos). Or on a Saturday (after a week chalked-full of meetings). And that we too need some rest. So that we also can feel refreshed. And ready to do more work in His name. Because what good are we if we cannot fulfill our duties and purposes that He has placed along the path of our lives?!
