Spiritual Refreshing: A life cycle

I remember reading an article about vacationing and learning that some people chose to take several long weekends throughout the year rather than taking one to two weeks off of work at a time.  This shifted my perspective.  I decided to adopt this idea a few years ago and I found it to be refreshing to my mind, body and soul.  At first I noticed that it took me almost half of the first day of vacation, to get my mind centered on my vacation and off of everything else.  After doing so, I was able to immerse myself in where I was and with those who were in my company (family & friends).  I remember one of my friends telling me, "you need to learn how to be in the moment." Well, prior to hearing that, I thought I was, "being in the moment."

In life, we have patterns by which we live, we go to work, we cook, we wear multiple hats, we exert energy, we sit, we sleep, we interact, we connect with people, we watch television, we eat, we take care of others, we talk, we breath, we DO SO MUCH.  We go to bed and wake up and do all of these things over and over again.  Then one day, we realize that we are TIRED. Our strength is not at peak level, we are easily irritated, we aren't focused, we aren't feeling creative, we get complacent and comfortable, we begin to believe, that there is nothing more to experience outside of what we always do. In a sense we lose the sense of adventure and excitement and the motivation to pursue such moments.

I believe that God wants us to live beautiful, fun, exciting, peaceful, love filled and productive lives. In order to accomplish this, we have to do new things, experience new places, meet new people (and give and receive love from those we already have in our lives), and be open and sensitive to the lessons that God wants us to obtain from all of this.

Spiritual refreshing is all about getting reset, centered, releasing, and being refueled in order to be the very best you, that you can be.  The life cycle component of this is, realizing and understanding that incorporating and experiencing new things and maintaining a vitality and freshness within our lives, is important and should be a routine not something we do every 10 years. If we make spiritual refreshing a routine of our lives, we can grow and operate at optimum level.

Have you ever felt guilty for doing something for you? I am raising both of my hands.  It is fine for you to do something for yourself and not be embarrassed, guilty or shy about it.  I struggled with this, for a long time actually, but if I am not good and everyone else is, is that good?

As PTMSPEAKS prepares for the April 7, 2018 event.  I know that God is going to make us first partakers (see 2 Timothy 2:6 and even 2 Timothy 2:7) of this truth.  It is important for us to have clarity of what God wants to do through each team member and speaker.

I started this blog one day and I am wrapping it up on another day.  Here's the thing, between the day that I started writing it and NOW (6 days) I have been partaking in the spiritual refreshing process.  I didn't know that it was going to happen.  The first process was removing items from my home that were not in use or useful (1 Corinthians 14:40), forgiving myself (1 John 1:9), tying up loose ends (Ecclesiastes 7:8), paying debts (Romans 13:8), saying no and being super realistic about what I can do AND what I haven't done that I NEED to do (2 Corinthians 12:9-10) and being mindful to audit my mind.  As a result, I feel free-er, more positive, more focused and productive, stronger, happier, and full of expectancy.  God is good and faithful to His creation.  He renews us. I love this about Him. 

Have a blessed day!
~Tanika