Hi friends! This is How Leaders Replenish. I want to share why I decided to start this podcast, and why I have such a heart for you to replenish as a leader.

My husband Shaun and I started a Church fourteen years ago. We planted it in Rochester, Minnesota which is the home of the Mayo Clinic, so we’re in a community with a lot of leaders. On our journey not only have I pastored, but I’ve also become an author, and guest speaker. Then around seven years ago I started getting tired. As many of you know, in leadership there are ebbs and flows. Mountains and valleys. There are things you go through and then seasons that things are lighter. During some of those hard seasons things were just more difficult for me and I was experiencing burnout. 

At that time my husband Shaun started encouraging me to take more time for myself to rest and replenish. Multiple times he would say, “why don’t you go to a nice hotel and have some time to just enjoy reading for a couple of days, get refreshed, and fill back up so that you have more in you to give out?” So I took him up on that offer, which was so kind and generous of him. Earlier this year I went and did one of those hotel stays. I was tired so I laid down on the bed and I took a 20 or 30 minute nap. During that nap I had this dream: I was trying to wash and dry three really nice looking peaches all at the same time. I was holding these three big juicy looking peaches under the water, but when I went to dry them I was trying to dry all three at once. All three of the big peaches slipped out of my hands and fell on the ground. They needed to be handled individually but I was trying to handle all three at once.

In the dream I asked, “what do the peaches mean?” and I heard a voice say, “one is taking care of your family, one is work, and one is self-care and time with God.” Then I woke up and I thought “wow! What a profound dream!” I am often trying to do all three of those things at once and really this dream was telling me it’s okay not trying to do everything at once! Interestingly, the day that I had arrived at the hotel I had been feeling guilty about that very thing. I was feeling like “my kids need me for this,” or “I need to do laundry,” or “did I leave enough food for them in the fridge?” I was thinking about work things that needed doing, and I was thinking “I know I really need to take care of myself like Shaun said.” I was experiencing this inner turmoil and struggle trying to hold all three peaches and take care of them all at once, and this dream was giving me this freedom and release to say, “you know what? You have to make time to handle each one individually.” It’s so important because if we try to handle all three at once we’ll end up dropping all three of them and they’ll get bruised. So I want to encourage you with that dream. I believe it wasn’t just a dream for me. That was a dream for you as well, my friend, to let you know that it’s okay to handle each one of those areas individually and schedule time for them.

Let’s talk about peaches for a minute. To be called a peach means that person is very pleasing. Symbolically it represents sweetness, pleasantness, friendliness, vitality, energy, playfulness, and encouragement. I find it interesting that when the Lord gave me that dream to release me from feeling guilty about taking time for myself He used a peach. When I take time for each of those peaches individually I’m going to be more pleasant, more friendly, have more vitality, energy, playfulness, and I’m going to be more encouraging to others. They’re gonna think “wow! Amy is a lot sweeter!” In some nations the peach is considered a blessed fruit. A symbol of longevity. And in some other nations peaches represent not only longevity but also riches, honor, and happiness. God wants our relationship with our family to have longevity, honor, and happiness. He wants our workplace to have longevity so that we don’t get burnt out in our callings. And He wants us to have that in our relationship with Him. We need to make time to have sacred time with God. That’s one of the ways you honor yourself–and I’m not talking about showing honor as in trying to get praise. I’m talking about honoring who God made you to be. The way you honor yourself is by making time to connect with God and to get His plan and His destiny for your life; to get that one-on-one time with God; to fill up and to have Him remind you of who He’s made you to be and the amazing things that he’s put in you so that you have more to give out. 

Do you have a replenishment strategy or replenishment plan for your life? If not, I think it is important to lay that plan’s foundation by having a sacred day between you and the Lord. So what does that look like? The Bible calls it the Sabbath day, but I like to call it a sacred day. Look up Psalm 23. It’s an amazing scripture about rest and restoration. Psalm 23:3 says that God restores your soul. Basically, when you go to Him for that connection, He will restore your soul. In fact, it begins with “The Lord is my Shepherd. I shall not want.” When we go to Him for that connection, He brings a restoration. It also talks about how He causes us to sit by still waters, and I think that is such a big part of restoration for me. All of my life, since I was a little girl, every time I’m around water I feel so peaceful. I just love it! Whether it’s a river, a lake, a stream, or an ocean it’s amazing the feeling of rest that people get when they are around water. We need to surround ourselves with things that produce tranquility in our life because tranquility will produce creativity. The more you surround yourself with things that make you feel tranquil you will find your soul feeling better rested, and you’ll find that creative juices in your brain are working more to produce the results that you need. 

How do we restore our soul? The definition of “restore” actually means to come out on the other side better than before; improved, increased, and multiplied. So let’s ask the question: what would happen to you if every week you had a sacred day with God? You would come out better on the other side after that day; improved, increased, and multiplied in your energy, your confidence, and your peace. Imagine how differently your week would go if you took the time to restore once a week! If you have not been having a sacred day for yourself I want to challenge you to set a day that you’re going to do that each week.

Now, I realize in Bible times that they did that on Saturdays, and I realize so many of us can’t do Saturday due to our work schedules. Just pick whatever day works in the week for you. For my husband and I, we split our sacred days. I take a sacred day on Thursday, and he takes his sacred day on Friday. Those are our two days off during the week so Thursday and Friday are kind of like our weekend. When our kids were little my husband and I had Saturdays and Sundays off, so a lot of Saturdays we’d basically take turns. One of us would get four hours off where it was just time for us in the morning and the other one in the afternoon. For example Shaun might give me from 8:00am to noon off. He would get up with the kids on Saturday and invest time with them until noon so that I could just sleep in or have reading time. Then at noon we’d go out and we’d have lunch together and then Shaun would have his time from 1:00pm to 5:00pm. I want to encourage you to find a way to make your own sacred day happen. I’m going to give you what mine often looks like and hopefully it will help give you some ideas for yours. 

A lot of times I’ll sleep or take a nap during that time. I’ll also read something encouraging that’s not work-related because I don’t want my brain to go back into work-mode. I may stretch and meditate on an encouraging Bible verse or listen to an encouraging podcast. I might go in the afternoon and get a massage or pedicure and manicure, or go sit by the water with a good book. That is super replenishing and fun to do. If you don’t have any bodies of water around where you live, a small water fountain running in your room with peaceful music and a good book can do the trick. I grew up on a farm in the country, so I always look up “peaceful instrumental music with birds” on YouTube and play one of those in the background and read a book. I’ll also read the Bible and journal thoughts that I have from what I’ve read. Just yesterday on my sacred day I set goals for the next year and worked on making a vision board. Things that I’m believing, with God’s help, to walk in and achieve for this upcoming year. 

It is very important that you don’t take any phone calls, open texts or emails, and don’t watch the news during your sacred day, because that can totally pull you out of rest. You have to guard yourself from things that will pull you out of rest and focus on things that will help you to rest. I realize that sometimes things happen. Maybe you’re taking care of kids that are overcoming some sickness or something similar. I realize that there are many things that can try to hinder you getting that day off, but as much as you possibly can really focus on getting that every single week. If you miss that day try to make it happen on another day. It will make such a difference in you and how much you have to give out. As you are replenished you are able to give to those other areas I spoke on earlier: the three peaches. You’ll be able to give into caring for your family, caring for the work that you’re called to and destined to do, and taking time for self-care and time with the Lord. 

I’m not talking about being totally focused on yourself and putting yourself before others or anything like that. I’m talking about having a good schedule in life where you make sure you get that day where you’re just focussed on getting filled back up so that on the other six days you have more to give out and you can do this life that you’re called to with joy and fun. And you’ll find that as you take time for yourself to get filled back up with God’s presence and His love you will have so much more joy for your journey. You’ll find your heart becoming softer rather than getting cynical, which is so important. 

I want to encourage you so that you can stay strong for the long haul, make sure that you have a replenishment plan, a replenishment strategy, so that you can stay on course. I pray that you have a wonderful, amazing week. Thank you for being with me and I’ll talk to you soon!