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Trust and obey, there is no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. I love that old song! Just as trusting and obeying go together, resting and trusting go hand in hand. When we rest in the Lord, we are saying we trust Him. We take our agenda, or even our own way of thinking and say we will think higher, like God does and we will give ourselves over to His Lordship in our life. We call Him Lord which really mean boss. If we want to keep our job, we do what our boss asks us to do. If we want to have a successful Christian life, we do what the boss (our Lord) says to do. Take a Sabbath rest. Intentionally leave margin in your life. Take vacations. Listen to your warning lights, and take a breather. Your body will thank you, and your family will too!

Are you a napper? I was speaking with a young mom this week, and every Sunday afternoon when she puts her kids down for a nap, she takes a nap with them. I love that! One of my favorite things to do on a Sunday afternoon in the summertime is to read the paper on the hammock and drift off to sleep in the warm sunshine for a short nap. I try to intentionally, deliberately take it easy on Sunday afternoons. As much as I am a go getter during the week, I realize the importance of a Sabbath Day rest, and I know that if I don’t intentionally, deliberately rest my body, I can not be my best for the rest of the week. Sometimes our body makes us rest through sickness after we have hit our limit. My best advice is to listen to the warning signs that your body gives you and act on them. Drink lots of water, get daily exercise, eat healthy food, and get some good healthy rest. It will do your body good, and that will make you better for all the people in your world.

I saw an ad recently that was encouraging people to take their vacation time. A little girls says that 400 million paid vacation days go unused everyday. The little boy says that’s the stupidest thing I ever heard! It was little kids in the commercial and they were adorable, but so very right. I was so surprised to hear how many people don’t use any or even most of their vacation. As surprised as I was, I had to laugh, because for our 25th anniversary of starting AGF, we were given a vacation trip from our congregation that we still have not taken. We are 4 ½ years since we were given the gift, and life has been really full and we haven’t used it yet. So, my determination is that very soon we will book the trip! So I will tell you to do what we haven’t done, go on your vacation. Use your paid vacation days! Give your family time to get excited about a future trip. Plan a trip for just you and your spouse, with some fun surprises along the way. A vacation can breathe fresh air into your family, into your marriage, into your own life. It is worth it!

Perhaps you haven’t heard about Sabbath in our secular world recently, but it is something that God established. God made the Sabbath for us and we honor Him by honoring a Sabbath day. Honoring God’s design, and the principles He established will only make our life better. Having a Sabbath in our week is a key component to finishing our race strong and healthy in old age. What is interesting is that God established the Sabbath before the fall, so the Sabbath isn’t necessary because we live in a fallen world, it is because God knows that our bodies need quiet and rest. God knows how to take what we give Him and make more with less. He does it with our finances, and He also makes it happen with our time. Give God one day of your week, and it will make the other six more productive. It is opposite thinking to the world, but it is a principle that works. Make a commitment to weekly rest, and then carry it over to a life long pattern in your life. We want to finish strong emotionally, spiritually and physically.

Take it to the limit, one more time. That line from an old Eagle’s song is the way many of us live. When it comes to finances, when it comes to time management, or even stress levels, we too often take it to the limit. God wants us to have margin in our lives, and make choices that keep us from living over the edge. In fact we learned in elementary school when we first learn to write that we need margins. The wide ruled paper that we used to print our name on had two margins, one on the right and on the left. It actually is a great reminder of how we are to live. Give yourself time at the beginning and at the end of your day to wind up and wind down. Take a break in your work day. That’s like a comma or a period to take a breath while you are reading. Take your lunch break. Take a potty break! Take your vacation time. Live within the margins, and deep breathe throughout your in your day. That will give you more oxygen for yourself, and then you can really help somebody else when you are not totally worn out. Breathe some fresh air into your life, and you’ll have some to give to someone else.

Have you noticed in your car if you don’t check or change your oil that after a certain amount of miles a little red light will come on in your car? If can happen if we don’t care for the battery, or the tires or the brakes. We want our car to be in good working order, so we check up on these things regularly. We should probably do the same thing with our physical bodies, our mental health and our spiritual life. How are you doing physically? Are any warning lights going off that are cluing you in that you need to get a check up? Listen to your body. How about mentally? Have you been so stressed that one more little thing in your world could make you snap? Listen to your mental health, and honor your body by taking a breather. Over stress is a warning light you can’t ignore. How about your spiritual life? Have you telling God you can do life without Him by ignoring His Word, or forgetting to communicate with Him? Make the change today. Listen to your warning lights

Intro:
Hi, this is Dorette Schaal with your dailyeword. This week as we will talk about breathing some fresh air into our life routines. Peace is possible and we can have room to rest without pressing the limits all the time. It is a pattern in the Bible that God established that we take time to rest and to worship. Mark 2:27actually says that the Sabbath was made for us, and honoring the Sabbath can be life changing and life giving. Here’s a breath of fresh air this week to recharge your schedule. Here is your dailyeword

Pace yourself. If you are a runner, you know that if you start out in a sprint, you will never finish a marathon at that pace. Only inexperienced runners begin marathon like that. I have been on a sprint through my day before, from the time my feet hit the floor in the morning, until I lay my head on the pillow at night. I should know better and I should do better. I know I am not alone. Maybe we have too much planned, or we say yes to too many responsibilities. We have to remember who is in charge of our schedule. We are! So schedule in some down time. Take a breather. Take a break every once in a while. Don’t forget to take care of you. Even Jesus knew when he needed time away. He honored the Sabbath, and honored his body by resting when necessary. We should follow His example.

The last few days we have talked about how important it is to read the Bible, pray everyday, worship with passion and today we will talk about the beauty of worshipping with others. I love church. I love being in church, and am at every church event there is if possible. I love church because I love people, especially the people God has brought and will continue to bring to our church body. We long for connection, and the wonderful thing about church life is that we can be connected in relationship with other believers in a church body. We can draw life and support from our fellow believers. We can have meaningful relationships where we give and receive. It is in those life giving relationships that God can recharge your life. Get plugged in at church. I hope to see you there!

]I am a born worshipper. I love worshiping God and could do it all day long, everyday. We are created for God’s pleasure, and he takes pleasure in our worship. (Rev 4:11) Real worship isn’t about us, or how good we can sing or play an instrument, it is all about God. I love this saying, “God’s love language is worship.” We often love others with our own love language. How about loving God in His love language. Make it a habit to be a passionate worshipper. God surrounds us and in fact lives in the praises of His people and there is nothing more precious than worshipping God and having Him pour fresh revelation or inspiration or encouragement into your life. Live as a worshipper. Take time to sing your praise to the Lord everyday. He loves the sound of your voice! You will be recharged as you worship!

Yesterday we talked about God’s Word being breath to us. We can breathe in The Word and be refreshed. Today we are going to talk about having a conversation. Take time every day, all through your day to talk to God. He loves you the most, and cares about every detail in your life. He like us to love Him back, and care about what He cares about. When the disciples asked Jesus how to pray, he responded with the Lord’s prayer. When I used to drive our kids to school, everyday I would pray that with them on their way to school. We need to be reminded every day of the verses in Matt 6:9-13. Say it with me if you know it. Our Father who art in Heaven, holy is your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven, Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, AMEN! Breathe in His presence as your breath out your prayers today. It will recharge you from the inside out!