Enjoy your Christmas Break

Christmas Eve is one of the biggest Church days of the year for ministers and Christmas is one of the biggest days of the year for us all (for the record, not all Churches have Christmas day services unless they fall on a Sunday). There has been so much time and energy spent the past few weeks and even months leading up to this event for ministers. Whether you are a children’s minister, family minister, social media manager, student  minister or custodian staff, you have put in a ton of hours lately. After all, not only do all the Church staffers have regular Sundays to focus on but there are countless other hours spent on all the extra stuff that comes along with Christmas.

That is why you need a break. And hopefully you can take that break. Thankfully, a lot of Churches give staffers flexible schedules the week after Christmas to spend time with family and friends. However, if you don’t have that flexibility, I hope and pray you find time to relax a little and enjoy this time. After all, if you don’t take time for a break, especially after a long season, you will burnout or fade in a major way. If God can rest after doing a big project like creating the universe, surely we can take a break.

So what does a Christmas break look like? When I think of relaxing and enjoying time I’m envisioning something like this:

• You sleep in a little or take a nap. If you have a little kids that might be tough but hopefully you can find a few extra minutes in the morning or afternoon to shut those eyes of yours for some extra sleep.
• Use your phone for personal use only. A lot of ministers are on call so they have to check email and have their phones around them at all time for work reasons. While it would be great if you could turn off your phone completely, the realist in me knows that is really hard. However, use your phone for personal use only. Download and even play a game if you want.
• Go do something you enjoy. Go bowling, watch a movie, go out to dinner…do something you enjoy and don’t feel guilty about it. Too often we sacrifice what we love and enjoy for “the mission”. Well now your mission is to enjoy you for a bit.

The reality is you’ve put in a lot of time and hours at the office lately. You’ve sacrificed a lot of time with friends and family to get ready for the big day. Now that it’s over, relax and enjoy your Christmas break a little so you can be refreshed as you get ready for Easter. Oh yes, I did say Easter…it’s coming up sooner than you think.

What do you think? How do you relax and enjoy your Christmas break? What do you do?  Share your experiences below or on social media using #ymsidekick when you share.

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