Take a Break to Redeem the Time

One of the best time management techniques that we have discovered is to take a break on Sundays. Often when considering time management, we sometimes forget that the best thing we can do to manage our time well is to take a break.
When God created the world, He took a break after six days. Was this because He was tired? We know that God never slumbers or sleeps or even gets tired so the reason that he rested was to set the example for us. God has already prescribed the perfect time managment schedule for us by His example--work six days, then rest on the seventh.

When we first married, we agreed that Sunday would always be given to worship, rest and time with our family. Over the years, we have tried to define exactly what that means for us. Especially as we began to have children, we started to realize that what others did on Sunday might not work for us as a day of rest so we started making our own standards to live by. For example, the traditional large Sunday lunch did not work for us because on Saturday evenings when all our children were small, I did not have time or energy to finish the evening by preparing a large lunch for the next day. We began having our easiest meals for Sunday lunch and then we began making it tradition to have a "breakfast meal" in the evening after church.

Yesterday as I was enjoying a day of rest, I recalled one way that God taught me about taking a day of rest. Several years ago, I was working very full weeks of taking care of little ones, homeschooling and travelling. One Saturday evening, I was preparing for Sunday and was definitely ready to go to bed. The baby had been waking up every night and I was very tired. Everything was fairly complete for Sunday, and as I walked toward my bedroom, I passed the dishwasher and noticed that I had not unloaded the clean dishes. Now I know that some people are going to throw mudpies of legalism at me, but as I noticed that dishwasher, it came to my mind that I could unload that dishwasher on Saturday night instead of Sunday morning and in this small way show God that I wanted to honor His day in just another way. I really wanted to just go to bed, but I finally decided to go ahead and unload it. When I went to bed, I just told the Lord how tired I was and let it go at that. That night was the first night that our baby slept the whole night through! If I remember right, that was the beginning of his sleeping through the night. I felt that God was showing us that if we choose to honor Him, he will honor us.

How does all this relate to time management? God prescribed a day of rest because as the Great Physician, He knew that our bodies needed it. One of the most relaxing things of my week is to go to bed on Saturday night and know that now I can rest because God told me to. I don't have to feel guilty about sitting down or choosing to take a nap because God has already ordered me to do it!

Next time you are tempted to redeem the time by adding on a list of household chores or business for Sunday, relax--take a break! As my husband says in one of his seminars, "What does God want me to do RIGHT NOW?" (How many people still have one of those bright yellow stickers?!) He wants you to rest. He wants you to calm down. He wants you to redeem the time--so go take a break (next Sunday--not right now)!
Here's a thought provoking radio minute from Rick on the topic