Making Quiet Days a Routine

Routines and rhythms helps us develop an understanding of work and play and rest. Too often they include all work, all tasks, all commitments to people and very little real rest. With kids this is a hard concept, what does rest with kids look like? As a stay at home mom with very little time alone I really fight for this. I would still like more play and rest alone or with my husband but I want to experience this with my children and as a family too! Don't you?

We have created a routine to our week to enforce habits of rest and play. Making it a habit allows me to more easily turn off my to-do list, knowing that there is time to accomplish the dishes, laundry, grocery, school, writing, cleaning...ahhh! When I can't turn off that list I cannot rest, I do not play with my children and they notice the difference as much as I do.

So I made Tuesdays our quiet days! For us that means no plans, no people, and no necessity of changing out of pajamas! We still do school and I most likely throw in laundry and do dishes but the pace of the day is slower. The schedule is dictated not by other people and appointments but by us. We read lots of extra books, we eat a big breakfast, we play games and do crafts and when daddy comes home, most often we are still wearing those jams. But he comes home to smiles on those days more often than others.

God created us to need rest, to be reminded that we aren't capable of doing everything. To trust Him for provision and for strength and for joy and protection. He is capable and when we don't stop we refuse the gift. We believe our way is better. We think that if the dishes aren't done we can't rest, if the laundry is still piled high we can't stop thinking, if the kids are making noise we can't have calm. But He tells us to rest in Him not our accomplishments, not our finished products and not the silence.

We can rest in the midst of the storm because He is the voice the calms it!

If I don't make Tuesdays a habit. If I don't Sharpie them into my calendar and carve that routine into life I will forget. I will take on more than I can, try to be someone I never can become and teach my children that rest is only for vacations (which is a mirage).

Rest is a choice, a gift given for us to accept and not a reward for us to earn. It is something that we have been created to need and yet we fight that reality. I fight it in order to attain perfection in a tidy house, super woman status in being able to do everything and need nothing. I instead melted down into a puddle of tears to my husband and was short tempered with our kids.

Rest has to be a reality and it never will be until we make the choice for it to be a priority!