Self Care as a foster parent is not just important, it absoloutely vital

I have shared before about the mental breakdown I had a couple months after becoming a foster parent. You can watch that video here.

Thankfully I have never been through something like that again, but it was a life altering moment for me. I tend to be the type person to go go go, do do do and ignore signs that my body is telling me to rest.

 I take it much more seriously now than I did in my younger years because now I have children relying on me, looking up to me, and I need to be a good example to them because I wouldn’t want them to have that type of mental breakdown, or anything like that because they saw a mom who didn’t prioritize rest.

Rest is Holy, rest is biblical.  Of course hard work is too, but we weren’t designed to go non stop and never rest. Especially when it comes to ministry. I don’t think God ever intended for us to minister to the point of burn out. Yes we are to take up our cross daily but you see in the Bible where Jesus ministered and then went away for time with His father to rest annd to pray and to meditate. In our Western culture, in this hustle, hustle world it is so easy to forget to prioritize rest. It is one thing I have loved about living in Nicaragua is seeing how strong the work ethic is but also seeing how they prioritize rest.

Of course we can be out of balance in either way, so finding that right balance of work and rest is so important.

So here are some suggestions for you. I’ve broken them down into daily, weekly, monthly and yearly habits that will help you with rest and keeping centred and balanced without being overwhelmed, when God calls you to do hard work and big things like fostering.