Praying for your own sanity
Relevant for more than just parents
You might hear all the time about parents talking about taking care of themselves “for their sanity.”
Or asking for prayers for their sanity because of the struggles of parenting.
With two girls (5 and ~almost~ 3), I know those struggles of parenting in those younger years.
Add to that multiple jobs, coordinating schedules, and, most recently, learning from my mistakes (long story short…I think I broke a toe because I tried to play soccer against kids at camp without any shoes on)…
…and my sanity is definitely in jeopardy.
And, as I was praying this morning, realizing that because of my own decisions I was going to be behind on a bunch of projects like this newsletter and mostly worthless at my job, I was becoming so frustrated with myself.
I went back and read my newsletter from yesterday about praying for grace for myself (I’m on this journey as much as anyone).
And I had to pray for grace for myself.
But I also had to pray for my own sanity, my own peace, and my own healing.
The Lord’s Prayer tells us to pray for God’s name to “be kept holy,” and that doesn’t make a lot of sense most of the time unless you are a Bible scholar or have been around the block in the Christian world for a while.
To keep it simple, it means that we need to praying for God’s name to be seen as mighty, Other (wholly different from us), but in alignment with our innermost being.
It means praying that we can bear the name of God appropriately and represent these same qualities, so long as we call ourselves faithful followers of Jesus.
So our prayers should be modeled around representing Jesus, representing God, well.
And that means, yes, being our most “sane” and feeling calm and at peace, is a way to represent God well.
Praying for your sanity is just as important as praying for God’s will to be done on earth, just as it is in heaven.
My prayer for today
Our Father, help us be at peace, finding our sanity, in the busyness of life. Spirit, help us bear your name well, always striving to be the best representative of Jesus we can be to others. Jesus, give us grace and peace for our slip-ups and mistakes along the way. Amen.
Remember
Spend a few minutes praying about how you can represent Jesus better, and how you can be praying for your sanity in the hustle and bustle of life.