Exodus Chapter 18.
I'm thinking about burnout. It's common but must be dealt with because it's not healthy physically mentally and spiritually.
Here are some steps that I wrote down that one could take to help avoid being burnout. You may have some of your own.
1. Don't be arrogant to think “I am the only one who can do this!”
2. Train people to do portions of your job and trust them.
3. Mentor them and slowly give them more responsibility even if it means letting them fail sometimes to learn.
When it comes to Edinboro camp, summer burnout is a real issue. I put in easily 80 hours a week or more. It is not as fun. I miss time with my wife and with my family. Affects my relationship with Karin. I told Karin I want to change things this summer as I learn more. Because it is summer, I do have to expect to work longer hours cuz it's the nature of the job, but to stay healthy and maintain healthy relationships I need to cut back some. Here are some of my ideas and you can act as my accountability partners to ensure that I'm doing something this summer so that I maintain a healthy body Mind and Spirit.
1. Instead of starting real early and ending real late I should switch it up. I should start later in the morning and stay later on some days, then on other days start early in the morning and end earlier in the evening.
2. I should commit to eat one meal a day with my wife alone. That would give us a chance to talk more and discuss issues of the day and be able to stay connected with her.
3. Long hours affect my whole personal responsibilities. My devotions are cut shorter and I don't do Bible memorization as often as I would like. I don't exercise at all during the summer except for maybe some games with the kids. I've had P. E. before in the past and I am striving hard to take care of myself physically.
So I want to do better at taking care of myself physically, mentally and spiritually so that I keep growing but maintain healthy relationships.
Lots of good advice! This chapter continued on in the same direction with the thoughts that I had yesterday about accepting help from others. Moses was having to deal with too many issues from too many people all day long. Jethro was an observer who saw how unhealthy this was and told Moses what he needed to do. I don’t usually like criticism even when it might come labeled along with the word constructive, but sometimes we do need to have a fresh perspective and be open to advice for how to do things better. I’m guilty of thinking that I have to do things myself too many times for various reasons so delegating is an area that I probably need to work on improving in my life.
Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, reunites Moses with his wife and two sons. (Remember the circumcision incident and Zipporah’s anger at Moses for not fulfilling this duty to his family.) Zipporah is a descendant of one of the 6 sons that Abraham had with his second wife, Keturah. They were considered Gentiles as the covenant was with Isaac’s line. Even with the best of intentions, sometimes our job or ministry, etc., can get in the way of our most important ministry – our family. I know because I too have done that. I’ll be praying for you and your family, PB. I love you all.
Thanks Aunt Nini!!!
I feel like there’s a lot of good, every day life application in this chapter. Moses is finally reunited with his family. He gets to have some good fellowship with his father-in-law and go through all that God has been doing for them. And then he gets some good advice on handling his current situation. Moses was taking all the responsibility and burden on himself and it was taking all his time and energy. I don’t think God means for us to handle everything on our way. We’re a body and we’re meant to work together and carry the load together. Delegating can be difficult, but again, it is important ask for help, to accept help, and to offer help to others.
I found this little gem;
…One of Satan’s most subtle deceptions is to keep us perpetually busy…
From the article
Are You Too Busy for God?
July / August 2010
Scott D. Winnail
If your not too busy check it out
Verse I looked at;
17 Moses’ father-in-law replied, “What you are doing is not good.
Sometimes we don’t even see that our little g has become our big G ,
In this chapter I notice how open Moses is to his father in laws advice. Let’s be real, God has been working and speaking through Moses to free the Israelites and deliver them out of pharaohs rule. Our human nature tends to be prideful, especially when we’ve proven to do great things. Moses was a great example to us though and very receptive to his father in laws comments and in doing so helped more good, God fearing people stand out in the community. When we can think about delegating our work as not a weakness, but a way to lift others up and help them to shine, we further HIS kingdom, not our own.