I love to fish…
If you were to give me the day off and tell me to do whatever it is that is truly restful, that energizes me, or just makes me feel better generally…I would go fishing.
I don’t do it enough. As a husband, dad, employee, and a student there is just too much other important stuff going on right?
Maybe that’s not true.
I read this post from my friend Carey Nieuwhof the other day and thought of you. I thought about you folks out there grinding through the weeks between Sundays and working hard…for the right reasons.
This is a post about family but it really goes beyond that.
It applies to you as a father and a mother,
it applies to you as a husband or wife,
it applies to you as a employee and an employer,
it applies to you as a leader.
So…how do you recharge? How do you make sure you are recharging?
Hmmm, I usually defer to the lazy option – reading or watching a movie. But I read an interesting article about this kind of thing where a distinction was made between Head people and Body people. Head people will read a book to recharge/de-stress while Body people will go for a walk (or maybe fishing).
The problem is that, if you are a parent (or maybe a leader), that you kind of drag your children (or peeps) along with you without considering them.
However, in order to consider other in this regard you need to change the core (your own preconceptions).
The who issue was really related to providing physical recharge methods as apposed to lazy one (reading all morning) for the benefit of your kids (they really need both)
Great point. I can’t sit still…unless I sleep of course. You are right about “the problem”…it’s a tension to manage though…and not a problem to solve. Got to take care of yourself…got to take care of them.
My summer was all about the important stuff. I travelled to wonderful places and spent time with all kinds of important people in my life! I know that kind of summer is unusual, but I was blessed to have the opportunity to do it!
My favorite way to recharge is spending time on the beach. That’s where I discover that I’m constantly reminded how awesome and amazing our Creator God is… I think that the beach is where I get to spend the most time with the people I love and the least amount of time on the other stuff that gets in the way of the truly important things!
I’m a school teacher by trade, and the daughter of teachers as well, and I have noticed that the idea of eliminating summer vacation just seems to be so very wrong in my own mind because of all the delightful pleasures that summer brings to mind. In my memories, summer was the time that my parents could finish the urgent stuff and have more time to do the important stuff.
Tom, I hope that sometimes your recharging involves a little fishing in French Creek!
Great perspective Bethany. Thanks. BTW…I’ve never caught anything in French Creek!