Today’s message at church was very timely, on the topic of rest. Not just sitting on the couch rest, but the need for Sabbath rest. Taking time regularly to recharge and reconnect not only with God, but also yourself. 

A friend recently posted about rest on her blog. With two young children it is hard to find time of quiet rest. Additionally our crazy schedule with Christy’s work makes rest that much harder to truly find.

Rest is available we need to make time to find it. The Bible promises rest to the faithful. Maybe not the rest we think we need. We need to find margin and quiet and not fill it with noise or distraction.

I think one of the challenges of our schedule is the lack of consistency. Each week brings a different schedule and it is hard to find routine. I find routine and discipline refreshing, maybe not restful. With routine you can carve out your time and space.

Matthew 11:28-30 has helped me through other times like this. Here it is for you:
Matthew 11:28-30 NLT

Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”

I’m feeling pretty uninspired right now. I need to write a post to keep the the 30 day challenge. I really should write more about my Superior Hiking Trip, but that seems like a lot of work to sort through the pictures to post. I could write about this morning’s run, or something we did today, but none of that seems very post worthy or exciting.

I looked through a couple of sites I found that offer daily prompts. None of them seemed very exciting today. Until I found this simple question at dailypost. It is a no-brainer.

If I suddenly received $1,000,000 from an unknown aunt the first thing I would do would be to pay off all of our debt. So much of our life and energy is controlled by that debt that we could make some drastic changes to our life and feel a lot more comfortable. I know money isn’t everything and it won’t buy our happiness but getting out from the shroud of even our “good” debt (house, student loans, and a car) would return our lives to a more normal existence.

No more night shifts, no more endless weeks, more family time together when we aren’t half asleep!! What to do with the other $800,000 is a tougher question. Doing the math of Team World Vision that would provide clean water to 16,000 people! We could probably get our siblings out of their debt too… Who knows.

What would you do with an unexpected windfall?

Today was the last day of school for me. It was a pretty good day celebrating with the 8th graders who somehow managed to survive 3 years with us!! It is amazing how many memories you can garner in 3 years. One of the speakers at the promotion ceremony figured out that it is over 3,000 hours together and I don’t think that includes things like the Wolf Ridge trip or Spain where we are together longer than the regular school day!!

There could be so many stories to share about this group of kids and watching the annual video brought back lots of memories from not only this group, but from others as well. It is amazing to see how the tiny 6th graders grow and mature into “big scary” 8th graders! Each year it seems like it gets harder and harder to say good bye!

One of the unique characteristics of my job is that I work with all of our almost 800 kids and support all of the teaching staff which is close to 50 people. So while we were celebrating the 8th graders I was also preparing for the other 600 kids to have an awesome last day too. Groups went to local parks and to the local movie theater.

I also had the privilege of taking 6 of my Bike Club kids on a final bike ride for the year! We went to Dairy Queen, saw the Minnehaha Falls, and Wabun Picnic Area. I also let them ride down the huge hill next to the Lock and Dam. One of the kids on the way back to school said, “Mr. Cross sure knows how to end the school year!”

My only regret is that I don’t have the time or energy to reflect back with many of the kids on their progress and growth during the year or the last few years. But all in all it was a successful school year.