How Do You Recharge Your Batteries?

How do you recharge your batteries?

I would love to know. You see, I have a job that doesn't have a start time, an end time, and regular 2 days off for the weekend. There is no set vacation time. However, its the best job in the world. Its a blessing...a true gift that not everyone can have, even if they desperately want it. I am a stay-at-home mom.

I have so many things to figure out in my job. Nursing skills, teaching skills, discipline strategies, financial strategies...the list goes on. Often there is no one to teach me, the skills are things I often have to figure out on my own. Its a task I usually greet with enthusiasm. I want to be good at my job.

When I think back to when I had my firstborn, Brady...I was full of energy, excitement, enthusiasm. Even when he was crying in the middle of the night, it didn't frazzle me. It was my pleasure to rock him until he settled down. It didn't matter how tired I was...somehow I had emotional energy that surpassed my physical energy. Remember how that felt? Do you remember when changing a diaper was even enjoyable simply because of the affirmation you felt when you could change that little cry into a smile? Life was simpler then, and the newness of it all was sweet.

Sometimes now, 5 1/2 years later, I grumble a bit a changing a diaper. At breaking up a fight. At giving an instruction for the hundredth time and hoping for obedience. Its all lost its newness. However, it is all still a blessing...a gift.

Hmmmm. So I've been reading in the Old Testament about the Israelites wandering in the desert with no food. God provided manna for them. It was new, it was a gift, it was sweet! The Israelites accepted it with enthusiasm, excitement even! And after awhile, the manna became...well, ordinary. The sameness of their everyday life became bothersome...even irritating. They became unsatisfied with the gift, and they started begging for something else, complaining in their boredom.

This is striking a little too close to home for me! The sameness of my everyday life has been getting to me. The precious gift I've been given has lost its newness, its excitement. So it seems that this is human nature. It happened to the Israelites...its happening to me! Well, lets look a bit further in the story. Did God say, "Well, okay. I'll give you something else. I'm so sorry you are bored with manna. Don't worry about it." Yeah right. In fact, God took their complaints so seriously that the Israelites paid dearly for their ungrateful, complaining attitudes. He gave them what they wanted...a change...meat! He gave them so much meat they got sick on it...and then He killed the complainers while the meat was still between their teeth. Yikes.

So what do we do? The feelings are real. Somehow, I need to recharge my batteries in the midst of my job. I don't have the luxury of a weekend away very often. I often have help, but its not that. I need to recharge my batteries daily...in ways that I can do without needing a babysitter, or an expensive night out, or a weekend away.

The Israelites prepared the manna in different ways. It lists a few right there in the Bible. We have chicken several times a week...but I prepare it differently so we don't get bored with it. Okay, so I've got to put that same effort into my every day life. I need to think of new ways to resolve arguments, new ways to motivate the kids to obedience, new twists on the same tasks that will be there today and tomorrow. Sigh. If you are like me, you might be thinking "Great. So I've got to figure all this out with energy I just don't have right now." Well, maybe we can help each other. If you have ideas, things that you are doing...please share! I would love to hear them. How do you order your day? How do you take care of laundry, cleaning, cooking, etc. What do you do that recharges your batteries? Post on my blog or facebook!