Taking Sick Days

Where to begin…

I have been pretty sick this past week with an insane head cold that made its way in to my chest so I have been forced to do only what I have to and relax the rest of the time. It has not been fun but then again I think I need to get sick every once in a while so slow myself down.  In the few days that I took to rest myself, I started to think we, (mothers and wives), are the glue to our families. Now don’t get me wrong, I completely agree and support a woman’s role in marriage but I often say to myself, “what would you do without me?” and in return Ben would say, “I don’t know what we’d do without you.”

I, like most women, play several different roles on any given day; Chef, counselor, nanny, accountant, chauffer, nurse…and that’s to name a few. For those that don’t know, Ben works for an amazing company, loves what he does and I work for our family. I stay at home with our three amazing kids and I am often asked, “What do you do?”’ Most of the time I say, “Nothing,” but that seems to bother me lately. So I have decided to start saying, “Whatever I want!” I don’t really get to do whatever I want, but it sure sounds better than nothing!

…and in the few ‘sick days’ I took off from work I started to ask myself some fun questions:

· Who would make dinner if I couldn’t? Kiersten or Ben. Ben has NO problem cooking, he actually taught me how to cook and would do it every single night with no complaint. Kiersten has a servants heart and isn’t too bad in the kitchen for a 10-year-old so I know she would do it.

· Who would do laundry? – Again, Kiersten or Ben. Both would do great and again with no complaining.

· Who would clean? That was a tough one! Even though the girls are both responsible for cleaning their own bedrooms and bathrooms weekly I know that Ben would hire a maid in a heartbeat if it couldn’t get done. Maybe I should play this cold out for another week and see where it takes me…… 😉

· Who would drive the girls to soccer?!? Yeah, right. That’s something I will always do, no matter how sick I am.

· Who would they ask the #1 question I hear every day- ‘have you seen my (insert any random item here)?” Even though I seem annoyed at this question every ten minutes, I really do know where everything is.

Not only should I be showing my children how to do every day things around the house to get through, I should also be showing them how to walk with the Lord every day and keep their cups filled so their eyes are always fixed on Christ. This has been a huge personal struggle for me. I seem to always put everyone and everything else ahead of myself and when it’s finally 8:30pm and everyone is in bed, my mind is completely shut off to even thinking about opening the word.

Also, as most of you know, I have signed up with Xtreme! to lead a small group of middle schoolers for the next 3 years. Even before this journey began I was worried about keeping my personal cup filled so that I might be able to pour into the lives of my Xtreme girls. I wasn’t worried about the girls liking me, I wasn’t worried about finding the time to be a part of these girls lives…my biggest fear was letting them down spiritually.

One of the ways I thought we could get my “cup filled,” was to get into a community group through North Point. Ben and I have been trying to get into one for a few years since we’ve started attending the church. The first attempt was right after Jackson was born and we were living in Gwinnett County. We found a group but the leader decided to back out of leading a group at the last minute, so we also decided to wait for the next go around. Then we moved to Fulton County and were SO excited to join a small group, only to find out that Group Link was scheduled during our Boot Camp weekend! NOOOO!!! The good thing is that Ben was able to talk with the groups director and long story short, we are waiting on some couples to call us.

In the meantime I knew I needed to find something other than my own effort to feed myself spiritually. Back in June I was invited by a friend to a Cup of Joy social event and thought it would be fun to attend. I learned that it was a women’s ministry founded by an amazing woman named Doris Brown who has a passion to lead women to Christ through His Word. After the event I didn’t think much about it until I received an invitation to start attending a weekly bible study. I thought it would be a great way to meet new women, feed myself spiritually and have some ‘me time.’ So I signed up, enrolled Jackson in hourly daycare and attended my first bible study this past Wednesday. I was surprised at how many people I knew! For the next 8 weeks we will be studying the book of Daniel and just in the introductory I was very excited!

Cup of Joy also partners with Cure Childhood Cancer and Wiphan which I am very excited to learn more about and become involved with.

So over the next 7 weeks while I am learning more about the book of Daniel and filling my cup, I challenge you to do the same. Take 5-10 minutes or as long as you need to make sure you are taking care of yourself so that your cup will over flow in to the lives of the ones you love and matter the most.