Jesus sees our weariness, exhaustion, fears and anxieties and invites us to find true rest for our souls in Him. Phones, work schedules and entertainment, however, can become barriers to true connection with Jesus. To say yes to Jesus means we may need to change some habits.

PHONE HABITS

• Bible before phone. Instead of waking up to the thoughts of the world, wake up to the thoughts of God.
• Prayer before phone. Research finds that on average each American touches their phone approximately 2,600 times a day. What if you talked to God 2,600 times a day? How different would your life be?
• People before phone. Commit to keeping the phone silent and out of view during meals, date nights and conversations.

WORK HABITS

• Manage work hours well. God doesn’t want us to be idle any more than He wants us to be overworked. Use work hours for work, not social media scrolling.
• Resist the urge to boast in busyness. Practice responding to “How are you doing?” with anything but “Good, but I’m so busy!” Try counter cultural responses like “I’m well and really enjoying our family time” or “I’m enjoying my new hobby.” Busyness doesn’t get to define you. It doesn’t make you worthy—Jesus does.

SABBATH HABITS

• Schedule your Sabbath. Choose 24 hours to stop working and put it on your calendar. Set an out-of-office reminder.
• Prepare for your Sabbath. It can be hard to rest in a messy space. Set the stage for a restful day by doing a quick house cleanup the night before and preparing meals in advance. Don’t wait until the Sabbath day to figure out how to rest. Make a list of activities that fill you up and ones that drain you. Then try to do only filling activities.
• Protect your Sabbath. Adopting a new habit takes work. Invite your family into the process of protecting your day of rest. Ask them to help you rest well.

ENTERTAINMENT HABITS

• Fast from social media. Social media feeds often create a false sense of FOMO (fear of missing out). Turn off notifications or disconnect altogether for true rest.
• Fast from TV. Somewhere along the way, it became cool to binge-watch TV. Fasting from TV provides an opportunity to rest from constant noise.

In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat—for He grants sleep to those He loves.