Refreshed
I am so supposed to be getting back on board the exercise train right now, but instead I'm sitting in this chair where I waste a little too much of my time and...well, we won't call blogging wasting time, will we?
I was just reading through a few of may favorite blogs, some famous and some not-so-famous, and I saw two friends conversing about their favorite feelings. One feeling that was mentioned was refreshement, and that got me thinking.
As a mom of four, wife of one, and friend to many, I don't get a lot of refreshment. I receive a lot of blessings as the result of serving and being served by the people in my life, but feeling refreshed is not something I can claim very often. Exhausted, yes. Overwhelmed, absolutely. But refreshed? Only in my dreams. (Okay, not even in my dreams, because I think I'm frantic even then.)
However, I just have to say that the Lord poured out refreshment on me this past weekend. There's no doubt I like to come on here and vent about my struggles and seeing the good in the midst of lots of hard, so I wanted to give a few moments to thank God for the plain old good. Our whole weekend was just GOOD! No stress. No worries. Just fun.
It was nothing grand, but after a wheezy, laundry-filled, fussy, fighting, disobedient week, it was absolutely fabulous. I think it's true that we can't appreciate warmth until we've been really cold, or food until we've been really hungry, or water until we've been absolutely parched. Well, after the rough stuff from last week, I was primed and ready to appreciate some low-key fun with family and friends.
Friday night was Girls' Night Out. It's been a long time coming, and it was totally worth the wait. I can tell you with 100% certainty that I am old, but I'm totally okay with that. We wanted to get outside of our middle class, suburbian mommy bubble, so we went to a, uh, happy place. Let's just say everyone else there was pretty happy, but so were we, and we didn't even need any of the stuff they were using to get happy. We were drunk on freedom!!!
We could wait for a table without people climbing on us or whining in our ear. We could eat our food without cutting up anyone else's first. We could sit and talk without getting up 34 times to take someone to the potty. Now, we totally had stay-at-home mom written all over us, and I had any remaining illusion that I was even moderately stylish completely shattered, but that's fine with me. I had a night out with yummy food that I didn't cook or clean up and uninterrupted conversation with other grown-ups. It was fabulous.
We topped it all off with some pretty exciting stuff. We went wild and spent as much on a slice of cheesecake as we had on our meal. The practical side of me knows this is completely ridiculous and something I should probably feel ashamed of since hundreds of thousands of people are starving. The sugar-loving side of me was overcome with happiness. With our boxes of precious dessert in hand, we spent hours in a semi-vacant house (with permission) talking and laughing. Only girls need no other entertainment than cheesecake and talking. As dull as it all sounds, I loved every minute of it...until 1am when I got home.
I was so refreshed that I wasn't even too upset when my little darlings woke us up at 6:30 on Saturday morning. I was plunged back into middle class mom-dom when we spent the morning at the soccer field. Grandma and Grandpa came to watch our superstar atheletes, eat burgers, and play ball in the living room. Then we spent the evening with lots of friends outside watching our kids get soaked in the creek, eating, and talking. Honestly, what could be better? I can't think of a thing.
We topped it off with a relaxing and refreshing Sunday...lunch with our soon-to-be missionary friends at church and dinner with the best neighbors in the world. I was spontaneously hospitable (not normally my best quality, but one the Lord is growing in me) and we all had a great time. And I am completely aware of the fact that every fun thing I've mentioned has involved a meal.
Oh, that all weekends could be so filled with fun, but in such a refreshing (not rushing around, stressed out) way. I really think it's all in our perspective. After having a not-so-fun week, but acknowledging the Lord's hand in it all, I had found a measure of contentment in my circumstances. I knew I didn't need the perfect weekend to satisfy my desires or bring me joy, because Jesus does that for us no matter our circumstances, but that just allowed me to enjoy and appreciate the weekend He gave me.
That sense of refreshment really is available to us so much more often than we take advantage of it. I rarely do. I live overwhelmed, frustrated, and stressed most of the time. But I shouldn't. Doesn't Jesus promise us rest? Our bodies can be busy (as mine was this weekend) but our minds and spirits can be at rest. How different would my face, my words, my life be if I lived in His rest? I want to achieve that kind of life even in the midst of all the craziness. Until it's an everyday thing, I'm quite thankful for little glimpses of it here and there.
I was just reading through a few of may favorite blogs, some famous and some not-so-famous, and I saw two friends conversing about their favorite feelings. One feeling that was mentioned was refreshement, and that got me thinking.
As a mom of four, wife of one, and friend to many, I don't get a lot of refreshment. I receive a lot of blessings as the result of serving and being served by the people in my life, but feeling refreshed is not something I can claim very often. Exhausted, yes. Overwhelmed, absolutely. But refreshed? Only in my dreams. (Okay, not even in my dreams, because I think I'm frantic even then.)
However, I just have to say that the Lord poured out refreshment on me this past weekend. There's no doubt I like to come on here and vent about my struggles and seeing the good in the midst of lots of hard, so I wanted to give a few moments to thank God for the plain old good. Our whole weekend was just GOOD! No stress. No worries. Just fun.
It was nothing grand, but after a wheezy, laundry-filled, fussy, fighting, disobedient week, it was absolutely fabulous. I think it's true that we can't appreciate warmth until we've been really cold, or food until we've been really hungry, or water until we've been absolutely parched. Well, after the rough stuff from last week, I was primed and ready to appreciate some low-key fun with family and friends.
Friday night was Girls' Night Out. It's been a long time coming, and it was totally worth the wait. I can tell you with 100% certainty that I am old, but I'm totally okay with that. We wanted to get outside of our middle class, suburbian mommy bubble, so we went to a, uh, happy place. Let's just say everyone else there was pretty happy, but so were we, and we didn't even need any of the stuff they were using to get happy. We were drunk on freedom!!!
We could wait for a table without people climbing on us or whining in our ear. We could eat our food without cutting up anyone else's first. We could sit and talk without getting up 34 times to take someone to the potty. Now, we totally had stay-at-home mom written all over us, and I had any remaining illusion that I was even moderately stylish completely shattered, but that's fine with me. I had a night out with yummy food that I didn't cook or clean up and uninterrupted conversation with other grown-ups. It was fabulous.
We topped it all off with some pretty exciting stuff. We went wild and spent as much on a slice of cheesecake as we had on our meal. The practical side of me knows this is completely ridiculous and something I should probably feel ashamed of since hundreds of thousands of people are starving. The sugar-loving side of me was overcome with happiness. With our boxes of precious dessert in hand, we spent hours in a semi-vacant house (with permission) talking and laughing. Only girls need no other entertainment than cheesecake and talking. As dull as it all sounds, I loved every minute of it...until 1am when I got home.
I was so refreshed that I wasn't even too upset when my little darlings woke us up at 6:30 on Saturday morning. I was plunged back into middle class mom-dom when we spent the morning at the soccer field. Grandma and Grandpa came to watch our superstar atheletes, eat burgers, and play ball in the living room. Then we spent the evening with lots of friends outside watching our kids get soaked in the creek, eating, and talking. Honestly, what could be better? I can't think of a thing.
We topped it off with a relaxing and refreshing Sunday...lunch with our soon-to-be missionary friends at church and dinner with the best neighbors in the world. I was spontaneously hospitable (not normally my best quality, but one the Lord is growing in me) and we all had a great time. And I am completely aware of the fact that every fun thing I've mentioned has involved a meal.
Oh, that all weekends could be so filled with fun, but in such a refreshing (not rushing around, stressed out) way. I really think it's all in our perspective. After having a not-so-fun week, but acknowledging the Lord's hand in it all, I had found a measure of contentment in my circumstances. I knew I didn't need the perfect weekend to satisfy my desires or bring me joy, because Jesus does that for us no matter our circumstances, but that just allowed me to enjoy and appreciate the weekend He gave me.
That sense of refreshment really is available to us so much more often than we take advantage of it. I rarely do. I live overwhelmed, frustrated, and stressed most of the time. But I shouldn't. Doesn't Jesus promise us rest? Our bodies can be busy (as mine was this weekend) but our minds and spirits can be at rest. How different would my face, my words, my life be if I lived in His rest? I want to achieve that kind of life even in the midst of all the craziness. Until it's an everyday thing, I'm quite thankful for little glimpses of it here and there.
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