Education with Heart & Soul

I could have retired long ago, my husband and I living on some exotic island drinking from coconuts had I been given a dollar for every time someone told me I need to take time for myself, or that I should be taking better care of myself. 

If you’re a living breathing woman given the charge of caring for others, you’ve heard the same, I’m sure.  We’re all aware of the buzz around “self-care” and how we need to fill our own cups before we can be of any service to others. 

I knew this to be true, however, I struggled with the deeply rooted belief that I must lay down my own life and that the path of sanctity was one of service and sacrifice.  I have many thoughts about this.  One being that the modern world proposes “self-care” as wine with girlfriends, massages, manicures.  None of which are bad in and of themselves.  However, when I was in the trenches of mothering and was up to my neck in laundry, carpooling, dishes, and sick kids, none of those things were able to go deep enough to fill what was truly lacking in my life.  

They offered temporary relief and respite, no doubt.   Laughter with girlfriends is truly healing and a good massage is pure gold for a weary body. 

But I’m talking about going deeper.   Finding what it is that is truly lacking in your life and making it a priority to live your life with intention and purpose, even when you are drowning in laundry and dishes.

As someone who dismissed the advice of so many family and friends, I now see how negatively this impacted my mental and emotional health for so many years.  Sure I spent time with the Lord in prayer, which is absolutely a must.  However, I wish I would have taken just one hour a week to sit down with someone, be it a counselor, coach, or mentor.   Someone who would have given me time to take a breath and even just begin to recognize what emotions were being stuffed down, hidden beneath the piles of dirty clothes and to-do lists.   Someone who could help me process, in a healthy way, my thoughts and emotions.  Oh how my poor husband would have benefited from that!

I don’t know what it is you’re needing in your life right now, but I do know, there is no greater gift I can give to you than to let you know that your needs and desires are not to be ignored or neglected.  They are to be brought to the light.   

Find someone who can give you the space to even begin to look within.  

To discover what is going on behind the painted-on smile. 

To allow you to cry, laugh, dream again. 

Ask the Lord to bring to light what it is you truly need. 

Right now. 

Investing in yourself isn’t selfish, it’s sanctifying.