Your car helps you get from point A to point B. Right?
It also takes us on those memorable family road trips, helps you take the kids to school in the morning, takes you and your friends to the get-togethers and coffee shops, and helps you move the furniture for your child’s first year of college. Your car helps us out with many things, but if you don’t take care of your car, then it will eventually slow down. You need to get the oil changed, tires rotated, etc… Just normal car maintenance.
Think of yourself like a car. When you are helping people, volunteering and serving at church, and going out of your way for others, you need to take the time for repairs. Or, in other words, take time to pause. You don’t want to over-extend yourself, or not have enough time for prayer, family, or friends.
Let others help you
If you’re busy helping others, let someone help you. You may feel like you have it all under control, and you may have, but when you least expect it, it can seem like too much. Let others help you with even the smallest tasks that you have planned to do. Whether it’s the family helping with chores or church staff helping with a project or event. Someone is always there to reach out a helping hand, and it’s there if you just ask for it.
As mentioned before, when striving to pour into others at your church, you have a whole group to help; your church staff and volunteers. When you’re in a leadership position at your church, you may feel pressure to do more than you can handle. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing when you want to do more and pour more into your fellow church members. Yet, it can get physically and emotionally tiring, and draining; especially when you aren’t taking the necessary steps to rest. Let your team, other leaders, staff, and volunteers help! That is why they are here. They want to pour into their fellow church members too.
Time with God
When you take time for others and to help others it can be wonderful and make them and yourself happy. Yet, over time, if you’re not taking enough time with yourself and God, you can feel drained. Taking the time to let God pour into you by prayer and reading God’s word is very important.
When we spend time with God in His word, he pours into us love, mercy, and reminds us of why we pour into others. He reminds us of the unconditional love for us, and the strength he provides through the Holy Spirit. These, and many more, truths are freely given to us by God in His word. It’s such a beautiful gift!
Press Pause
Taking a breather sometimes can be the difference between being able to keep going and stopping all together. If your day-to-day is busy, then taking a second to reflect, pause, breathe, etc. can help you get through the rest of your day.
This goes the same when you are pouring into others. When you’re helping others and doing things for them with no rest, you can overwork yourself. Remember the car example? If you’re driving on and on without stopping for gas, then you’ll be stuck somewhere on the side of the road; possibly in the middle of nowhere! Do not worry, even if you run out of gas and get stranded, you can always call for help.
Conclusion
Pouring into others is something we should all strive to do. Whether it’s a kind word, taking them to lunch, or a simple conversation to show them how you really care. Sometimes, we get overloaded with things to do for others, and we forget to let others pour into us. Let others help you so you can pause and take a breath, and let others take you out to lunch and ask you how you are doing.
