Editor’s Note: You can read the previous articles in this series below:
The Challenge of Stewarding Our Time Wisely
Stewarding Our Time Wisely Honors God
Stewarding Our Time Wisely Blesses Our Families
In our current series on stewarding our time wisely, we’ve already explored how stewarding our time well is a particular challenge for parents of young children, how using our time wisely honors God, and how being intentional with our time can bless our families.
In this final article in the series, we’ll discuss how using our time wisely can also benefit our own spiritual and physical health.
Wisely Stewarding Our Time Benefits Our Health
Having talked to a lot of parents and young couples, I observed a trend that some of the first things that can get crowded out when life gets busy are related to personal health. Specifically, spiritual disciplines and rest are often neglected when we get busy.
Spiritual Disciplines
Spending time alone in God’s Word and praying are crucial to our spiritual health. Reading the Bible saturates our hearts and minds in the truth of God. It renews our minds and keeps us from being conformed to the world. It comforts us when we’re discouraged. It rebukes us when we’re thinking or acting sinfully. It grounds us in truth about God and Christ so that we can face our days spiritually-minded.
Praying is how we commune with God. It keeps our relationship with God strong. It’s how we praise him and thank him for all that he’s blessed us with. It’s how we bring our requests to Him so that we don’t have to be anxious. It’s how we pour out our hearts to Him when we’re hurting. It’s how we lift up our families to God.
It can be easy to let our spiritual disciplines slip when we get hit with a time crunch from family responsibilities, especially when kids enter into the picture. When I was single, I was able to spend a lot of undistracted time reading and praying. Having kids can make it difficult to do anything undistracted. You also have the added challenge of being exhausted. When you have a newborn and you’re not getting sleep, you may fall asleep within minutes of reading or praying. That is ok – keep prioritizing time with the Lord. You don’t want to let that slip away even when you’re tired or busy, because that will negatively impact your spiritual health.
Get creative. Pray throughout the day—when you’re changing a diaper or driving. Read your Bible on the phone app when you have a free minute. Being disciplined to make time with the Lord will always be worth it. Be intentional with your time to ensure you are making time for your spiritual health.
Rest
For some of us, taking care of our physical health becomes a non-priority when we have a family. Sleep and rest are common areas that go out the window when things get busy. “According to the CDC, about 1 in 3 adults in the United States reported not getting enough rest or sleep every day.” (Source) “About 20% of U.S. adults sleep fewer than five hours each night, even though experts recommend adults sleep for at least seven hours per night.” (Source)
Especially in Silicon Valley, where I live, neglecting sleep is the norm. I worked with people who would brag about routinely sleeping only four hours a night so that they could work more. We need to remember that God designed us to need rest. Isn’t it fascinating that God created us to need to sleep for approximately a third of our lives? This wasn’t a mistake – it was part of his plan for us. Sleep is a gift from God:
It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.
Ps 127:2
We neglect sleep to our own peril. “Sleep deficiency is linked to many chronic health problems, including heart disease, kidney disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, obesity, and depression.” (Source) Wisely stewarding our time and our bodies means that we need to make sure that we are getting enough sleep.
As parents, there’s no way around it: having kids is going to impact your sleep, especially when you have newborns. It starts in the hospital after delivery. For all three of our kids, labor went throughout the night. We were up all night and then once the baby was born, nurses came in every hour or two to check on the baby. We didn’t get more than 45 minutes of sleep at a time in the hospital. Then when we finally got home, feedings were happening every few hours, so we were still not getting consistent sleep.
Sleep deprivation continues until they start sleeping through the night. If you have a baby that sleeps long stretches at a time from birth, that’s an amazing blessing. Our three kids were all across the spectrum: one was a great sleeper, one was a pretty good sleeper, and one experienced colic for a year. It was significantly harder having a baby that didn’t sleep consistently.
I used to think that I didn’t need very much sleep to function, but that eventually caught up to me. I’m a night owl and my preference would be to stay up late and sleep in late. With a job, sleeping in gets harder, so I would stay up late and still have to get up early for work. When my son was in the midst of his colic phase, he would cry for hours at a time in the night. I would still try to stay up when he finally went to sleep to get some downtime, but I had a hard time focusing at work and I just felt awful all the time. I knew I had to make a change – so I started going to bed earlier or as soon as he would go down. That meant having less free time to read or watch a movie, but I felt significantly better. Trying to be wise in one area may mean deprioritizing other things.
Even now that my kids are older, I’ve found that I feel sharper during the day and I have more self-control when I get a good night’s sleep. I still try to get to bed at a reasonable time even if I know I’m not going to be up at night with a baby. As best you can, trying to prioritize getting enough sleep is wise.
We’ve been talking about sleep, but getting enough rest in other forms is crucial to your health as well. God modeled rest for us in the creation account:
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.
Gen 2:1-3
Even though God never gets tired and has limitless amounts of energy, he rested on the 7th day of Creation to be an example to us, even though he personally didn’t need it. Additionally, he gave the sabbath as a day of rest as part of the Ten Commandments. One reason he did this was to show the Israelites the importance of rest.
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
Exod 20:8-11
As believers in Christ, we are no longer under the Mosaic law. We’re under the New Covenant, so we don’t need to observe the Sabbath like the OT Israelites. However, we can still look to it as an example of God giving rest as a gift.
As mentioned previously, using your time wisely doesn’t mean working and being productive 100% of your waking hours. Recharging your batteries by playing a board game, playing soccer with your kids, watching sports, reading a book, camping, going out for a nice meal, going to the beach, taking a vacation, going on a hike, etc. are wise things to make time for in your schedule. We need to balance getting rest with the warnings that Proverbs repeatedly gives about laziness, for example:
The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.
Prov 13:4
Love not sleep, lest you come to poverty; open your eyes, and you will have plenty of bread.
Prov 20:13
However, enjoying rest and sleep in moderation are ways of wisely stewarding our health and enjoying the blessings of the Lord.
Conclusion
In the midst of the busyness of life, intentionally evaluating how you’re spending your time and making adjustments will help you ensure that you’re using your time wisely.
Stewarding your time well will honor God, bless your family, and benefit your own spiritual and physical health. While this can be challenging when you feel like you’re barely treading water, cutting through the chaos and adding flexible structure to your life can positively impact you and your family.
