Are you a young mother, busy with the duties of caring for your family? Or are you a mother of young children that need your constant attention every waking second of every day? Do your feet hit the floor running and by the end of the day you fall into bed and as soon as your head hits the pillow you’re out like a light? Is free time those few minutes on the toilet with little voices calling, “Mom, Mom, Mom…where ARE you???” ….while little fingers (and paws) pry under the doorway….
Or maybe you cannot even find THOSE few minutes to yourself. Are you a stay-at-home mother or a working mother either one….neither is free from the constant caring for that child or tribe of children that came forth from your body, that extracted your heart from your body in an instant, that instant they were born and made everything you live for painfully outside of your ability to control?
It isn’t really exclusive to mothers, fathers do it too….. Do you spend myriads of time running a taxi-service to get your offspring to music lessons and sporting events and speech therapy, the occasional doctor and dentist appointments and don’t EVEN think about the pets!! Play dates, girl/boy scouts, church events…. Then they get a little bit older and you have to juggle their friends too! Then a little bit MORE time passes and they juggle jobs and driving and who gets the car? dating and band practice…college visits……a wedding…. and BAM they’re gone! Not kidding! They’re gone in a millisecond…..
Do you always put those children first? Of course you do, we all do. We have to, they need that. As infants they depend on us for every single thing pertaining to life. As they mature, they need training, and direction along with love and care.
But first doesn’t mean ONLY. You teach your children how to care for themselves by example by how you care for yourself. Do you eat healthy meals or just finish whatever they left on their plates? Do you even remember to eat at ALL? Do you get enough water every day? Are you exercising? Do you get fresh air? Do you take time to nurture your spirit and take care of your emotions day-to-day? Do you keep your relationships CURRENT (don’t let the sun go down on your anger)? Do you say please, thank-you, I was wrong, and I’m sorry?
You don’t? So then, you don’t take care of YOU? Well….. STOP IT! Just STOP it! Too busy? You’re too busy NOT to take care of you….. just STOP IT! Take it from Dr. Switzer…. cause, he’s a doctor…. watch how he handles this lady with her problem…. his advice goes for “NOT TAKING CARE OF YOURSELF”!!!!
When you forget about taking care of yourself…..JUST STOP IT….. and DO it! Take care of YOU! You are the only mother (or father) that child/those children have…they need you, both to teach them…and to be there for them.
Take time to meet your own needs as you care for your families!!
3 John 2 “Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may PROSPER and be in GOOD HEALTH, just as your SOUL PROSPERS.”
A Heart for Oils 