Help
With Your Rule
Vacations and a Mother's Rule
Dear Holly
How do you handle vacation time in your rule? I just got started on mine and now my family's vacation time is interfering with my schedule. When I relax, I feel a bit guilty, like I'm not doing what I should. Any words of advice?
Labels: About a Rule of Life
posted by Holly at 9:22 AM
1 Comments:
Thank you for your question.
This is where we need to take stock of what a Mother's Rule of Life is really all about. It is easy to get tied up with the schedule aspect and forget the reasons behind the rule - the spirit of the rule.
The goal of our rule is to bring order to our lives, to help us become peaceful and recollected so we can fulfill the mission God gave to us. The schedule aspect is a tool, and only a tool, to accomplish this.
In the spirit of our rule, we are meant to live our lives in a love relationship with God, husband and family and all others. It is this time spent with them - being available, accepting, helping, bringing out the best in them - which is the core. Vacation time provides a relaxed setting for relationship.
But we need to remember that our person is the second P - a high priority in our lives - and that we need personal time to refresh as well. That we might feel guilty or stressed about taking time off, or having our family around 'interfering' with our schedule, points to the need of mellowing out and taking that vacation!
We are busy Moms. We need refreshment, relaxation, re-creation - to be made new. Relax time and a change of pace does this. It is not so much that vacations interfere with our rule, but that perhaps we need to realize vacations are a part of our rule. They are aimed at the restoration of our personal health - physical and mental and emotional and spiritual.
We all need time away from the routine of an intense work schedule. That we seek renewal is a good thing. It is a benefit to our second P (person), and is within God's intent for us. As mentioned in MROL, we can't give what we don't have - we can't be 'there' for our family if we are exhausted.
Instead of focusing on the 'schedule' of the rule this holiday season, perhaps it is a good time to catch up on some sleep; re-read the "Spirit of My Mother's Rule" in MROL and reflect on the deeper realities of our vocation; sit and relax and bring ourselves to stillness; get the supper dishes done and let the day's worries be enough for the day.
With a quick clean up of the house at the end of the holiday, we can launch back into our schedules , but this time , feeling refreshed and eager to get on with our mothering business! God Bless!
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