Ever go on vacation and come back tired? You look forward to those days all year. You plan and save and dream. Your excitement fuels you through the stresses of packing for you and the kids. And if you are a control freak…ahem…like myself then you have planned and packed for every known contingency. And you might’ve made up a few. Just in case, of course. Stomach virus with a sprained ankle and a case of identity theft? check, check, check. Got it covered!

Launch date comes and you are headed to your destination. If you are a parent, the trip often will take longer and be far more hairy then anticipated (and you anticipated long and hairy already).

You made it! Time for fun galore! But wait, parenting doesn’t stop for vacations. Why don’t the people who book your vacations tell you that??? Meltdowns need managing, pooplosions cleaned and for goodness sake, find the Disney channel before we combust!

Those dreams of lying down next to the pool while your darling children play together in sync and without fighting about who splashed who, are quickly fading. No rest for the weary.

And then before you blink an eye, you are headed home (without all that excitement to fuel you like you had at the beginning of the trip). You are tired of spending every waking hour with your children and you are now more exhausted than when you left. Refreshment? What’s that? If we are honest, it might just be a fruity alcoholic beverage with a pierced cherry and orange slice on top. It isn’t the rejuvenating of your body, soul, and mind. There was some fun on this trip, but are these activities what you needed after a hard year of work, transitions and long nights?

And now you head back to work, with a house that looks like a tornado hit it. Luggage half-unpacked, dirty clothes in the laundry in a sky-high stack, and take out boxes on the counter (because who wants to cook after traveling so many hours?!).

You spend the next few weeks recovering from that week of fun nourished by caffeine. You work harder to catch up on all the work you missed. The whole family is detoxing from all that “fun” vacationing. What is missing from this picture? The answer is simple.

REST.

As simple as this word is and as simple as the action behind the word implies, it is rarely undertaken. Because the fact is:

Rest is hard work.

I would argue that rest is hard work that is worth every effort to pursue. Yet pursuing it doesn’t have to look like that stellar vacation. Perhaps, it is a lot more elusive than that. It is a universal need that is acquired in different ways. Have I peaked your interest? Are you thirsting for refreshment (and not the fruity kind necessarily)? Are you hungering for rejuvenation? If you are, I don’t think you are the only one.

About 75% of adults in the U.S. reported moderate to high levels of stress just in the past month according to the American Psychological Association.

The number one health issue for teens is stress according to the National Institute of Mental Health.

44% of Americans say their stress has increased in the last 5 years, says the American Psychological Association.

About half of Americans (45%) say that they have trouble with sleeplessness (APA).

Around a third of Americans are struggling with anxiety, fatigue, and irritability (APA).

Why are we more stressed in the United States (and lots of the world)?

According to the Travel Association’s Project: Time Off, 54% of Americans had not used their paid vacations by the end of the year in 2016.  In 2015, it was 55%.  That is just talking about people not taking off from work.  But what happens when people get home.  Or the people who are home all the time, like the stay at home moms or caregivers for elderly parents.  If you have children, rest is rather hard to find.  Parenthood is a 24/7 on-call job.  Sometimes, thankless.  Definitely without pay.  Today’s parents are handling enormous pressures to meet all of our children’s needs.

Our culture will not give us permission to stop and rest.  Our families might not either.  Yet, we must rest in order to function.  Let’s endeavor to be counter-cultural.  REST.