Sunday_Part 2

Today I bought a few mysteries at a thrift shop. The woman who helped me looked at my books and said. "I'd like to read but I'm too tired at the end of the day to read...even a small one like this one."

I find it helps to listen because sometimes the person will tell you more and she did.
"I just can't say no," she said. "I say 'yes' so I don't have anytime. Only once in awhile will I allow myself a day off. That I really enjoy....but, she said, " that doesn't happen very often.

Rest seems to have gone out of style. But, that is not good for any of us. The woman before me although middle aged looked very tired and the truth is SHE CAUSED HERSELF TO BE OVERSCHEDULED.

One of the 10 commandments was to keep one day out of seven "holy" and set aside to rest with NO WORK. That was for everyone even mothers who prepared food the day before for this day.
Rest is good for us.

I discovered reading when I was in middle school. My mother drove us down to the old San Jose library downtown and we went up winding stairs to the children's area. At the top of the stairs was a large chart with names and stars. My mother told me that it was a contest and you got a star for each book you read. Now my mother was a teacher and a smart woman. She knew how important it was to get "reading" in as something you liked to do. Well, the summer reading program succeeded. I took tons of books out each week and sat and read and she could hardly get me to do anything else.

So when the woman at the thrift shop told me she didn't have time to read, I felt a wave of sorrow for her. How many things she was missing but also what was her family missing because she had scheduled herself to be so busy.

Sometimes we need to write REST on our program. I think we all would be a healthier, happier people if we would stop treating ourselves like machines and realized that rest is good for us and God knew that we needed a day of rest once a week. No work. No errands. No push.
Well, could you try it?