No rest for the weary? No kidding!

My best friend has a tendency to over-commit herself. I used to constantly get after her about how it's okay to say "no" to things. She was running just about every night of the week, helping with church, youth group, volunteering for things at work (she worked at a group home), trying to hang out with friends. She was always over-tired and over-stressed. And I used to shake my head at her, as I always protected my rest time.

I look back at that and think, "What happened?" I supposed imitation truly is the sincerest form of flatter, because I really look up to this woman. And now... I'm just like her. And she's the one from across the ocean say, "You need to cut back." Nice little turn of the tables, isn't it?

I can't seem to say no to anything. I'm always running, always doing. If I quit one activity, I only replace it with another. All are worthy, valuable, and the ones that would give me the most free time are the ones that give me the most fulfillment. And I find myself exhausted. A lot. And whatever rest time I do get only ever plays catch-up, not refreshment.

I'd love to take some time off. But I wonder when? VBS is winding down today. I'm sad in a way, because it's so much fun to watch these kids get excited about the things they do, and I hope they're learning a lot. But I'm also really glad: I'm so tired! (And I don't really do that much, I can't imagine how the crew leaders or craft workers or kitchen volunteers feel at the end of the day!) Then tonight I have an overnighter with the high school girls: lots of fun, but little sleep. Tomorrow I might get to sleep a little, but there's stuff I've neglected around the house for too long to think about it.... And then this next Monday starts student teaching and I'm going to be busier than the proverbial beaver. With wedding planning, lesson planning, teaching, youth group, premarital counseling, and bible studies.... Where does REST come in? What will I have to say no to in order to get it?

What if I don't want to say no?

Searching for... perfection?

Things I want to succeed at (in no particular order):

• I want to be a good d-group leader. Scratch that: an excellent d-group leader. Not for my own props, but so that I can provide the best possible discipleship to my girls. Because they deserve that.
• I want to be a good helpmate to Nick. He deserves that.
• I want to do well at student teaching. I want it to be an easy and good experience for my cooperating teacher. I don't want to put my students behind because of my incompetencies. I would like it to be a rewarding experience and to learn a lot. I would like to be a credit to those who work with me.
• I had wanted to be a good intern for the church: to be an asset to my youth minister, to the students (and by extension their parents), and to the sponsors. [Don't know that I really did very well at that one, though.]
• I want to be an excellent Christian. There are analogies of being mirrors or moons [to reflect God's light to others]. Yes, I want that. But really, I want to be a credit to my Savior. I don't want to be one of those that turns others off to God, though I'm ashamed that I have more than likely done that. I wish I were doing a better job on this one. Though, I hope that if it is true that as you get closer to God, you see more of what a sinner you are, then I hope that what I see may be some sort of indication that I am getting closer, though never close enough. I can't wait to go home.
• I want to be a good daughter to my parents, who have done so much for me and given me more than I could ever expect or hope, even as an adult. Failing on that one, too. Sorry, Mom and Dad.
• I hope some day to be an excellent mother: teaching my children to walk uprightly and to love God and love others. If I can hopefully teach them that, then hopefully everything else will fall into place alongside of it.
• And there are probably a long list of others that I could hope to achieve....

The thing is, it's an impossibly long list. And it seems every time I do one well, I drop all the others. I have such impossible high expectations of myself. Impossibly? I don't really believe that. I really think that if I just try harder, work harder, am better, that I can do these things. That I can do them all and more and do them well. But can I really? Should I really? There are some that I just won't give up. If you want to see where my heart is, look at this list. I guess I could go back and reorder them in their priorities, but I have two or three at the top, and the rest all compete for fourth.

These days, I want more and more to do well, to do better, to not really succeed, but excell. At Grace, we talked about excellence. Not so much for our own glory, but for God's. We wanted to be excellent students, excellent servants, excellence, excellence, excellence. I didn't really appreciate it then, but I do now. It's amazing the impact school still plays upon my life. Because I truly yearn for excellence. I want to do credit to those around me. I want to do credit to Jesus.

However, I can't expect to actually do it all on my own. If I did it all on my own, who would the credit go to? Me. Yikes, that's not what I want. The funny thing is, the more I think about it, the more I don't want it. Yes, it's nice to receive encouragement; I've seen so recently how much I want and need encouragement. Even the simplest of messages incited tears. But credit? Nah. That should go somewhere else, and I want to be sure that He receives it. Therefore, I can't do this all on my own. I can't do it, anyway. Instead, I need to rely more on the One who gives me the strength to do all of this: or anything. I'm not so good at it, but that is my spiritual goal for this semester. To rely on Him that I will actually be able to fulfill all that is given to me. And to hopefully be a credit to His Name.