Mark 6:31 “And he said unto them, come ye yourselves apart*into a desert place, and rest awhile: for there were many coming and going and they had no leisure so much as to eat.”
Summer time for a teacher is thought to be a time of rest. Rest from lesson plans, state requirements, students who depend on you, team meetings, workshops or staff development, parent/teacher conferences, to name a few.
While summer can be just that, it can also be costly. When I think of summer I think of it as being a great time to gain back strength that has been sucked dry during the year of demands on my body. Getting up early, not eating right, long days, long nights grading papers, heartache of knowing you couldn’t help that one child you so desperately reached out to. It should be a time to fill up or rest your tired bodies and souls.
Summer time is a time of vacations, water parks, camps, VBS, little league and other ball games, unpacking from vacations, washing clothes from water parks and camps, preparing lessons for VBS, and getting those tough stains out of uniforms.
My dad always told me to keep a full tank of gas in my car. He cited several reasons but the ones that stuck with me were; being stranded on the highway alone, possible mechanical problems with the fuel pump, and getting water (condensation) in the tank. I’m not a mechanic so I don’t know if this is correct or not but I do know that if we do not keep a full spiritual tank our bodies suffer. We run out of gas!
Summer is a time to observe and absorb the beauty of God’s creation. We all need time to just be still, and know that God is in control. Tanks that are drained most of the time do not perform as well as those that are kept full. This can affect us emotionally, spiritually, physically.
Psalm 46:10 “be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen; I will be exalted in the earth.”
My friends please use the summer to rest. Rest in the Lord and be strengthened. Jesus himself spoke of the need for rest many times in the bible. I’m not just talking about physical rest even though we must have rest from our labor. I’m speaking of spiritual rest as well the kind of rest that comes from studying Gods word, prayer, meditation, and fasting.
If we purposefully make time and choose a special location to “rest” in the arms of God, we become a vessel that can be used to produce great deeds for God.