Sometimes we need the gentle reminder: deadlines can wait, but your health cannot. Work will always be there, the lists will keep refilling, and the world will still keep spinning if you pause. Yet you — your body, your soul, your heart — cannot be replaced.

Last week, Clive forwarded me a video that redefined the word JOB as Just Over Broke. In it, Warren Buffett was quoted: “If you don’t find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die.” How true this feels. Many who are self-employed think they own a business, but in reality, they often own a J.O.B., because when they don’t work, they have no income. It is sobering, and it reminds me that even purpose-driven work can so easily consume us if we’re not careful.

Those of us who have wrestled through burnout and breakdown will tell you: it is the neglect of self-care, the pouring out from an empty cup, that eventually catches up. Work — whether as an employee or entrepreneur — can take and take until we have nothing left. Without rest, we lose not only our health but also the joy and creativity we were meant to bring into the world.

I have learnt the hard way that rest and self-care are not a luxury but a first priority if we are to live and give from the overflow. When we pour out without replenishing, we eventually run dry. Yet when we choose to fill ourselves in God’s presence — through rest, prayer, and tender self-care — we begin to live from the abundance He intended.

Even God and Jesus stressed the importance of rest:

Jesus too modelled this rhythm.

If the Creator and the Son honoured rest, how much more should we?🤔 Rest is not an optional extra — it is part of God’s divine rhythm for life.

Self-care is not indulgence, nor is it weakness. It is an act of stewardship over the life God entrusted to you. Just as we tend to a garden so that it continues to bloom, we must tend to our own hearts so that love, creativity, and strength may flourish.

There is courage in choosing rest. Courage in saying, “I matter. My health matters. My presence matters.” When you step away from the urgent to tend to the important, you are aligning with God’s design for balance and wholeness.

💡 Reflection: 

• Where in your life are you tempted to trade health for productivity?🤔

• How can you shift that today into a moment of rest or care?🤔

You matter more than any task on a list. Let today be the day you choose yourself — with compassion, courage, and the steady assurance that God delights in your wholeness.

🎨 Creative Prompt: 

Sketch or paint an image of yourself as a flourishing garden.

• What colours, textures, and shapes symbolise your need for rest and nourishment?🤔

🙏 Prayer:

Lord Jesus, thank You for reminding me that I am precious in Your sight. Forgive me for the times I have pushed myself beyond what is healthy, forgetting that my body and soul are a gift. Teach me to embrace rest, not as laziness, but as sacred obedience. Help me steward my health with wisdom so that I may serve You and others with joy and strength. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.