The Allen Family Chronicles: Self Care

It is a beautiful morning! A few clouds in the sky with the sunrise reflecting off of them producing amazing colors.

When you are in a ministry or non-profit, usually your focus is on serving and impacting others with the hope of seeing lives transformed. Often, the idea of taking care of yourself is not at the forefront of your mind or it may even seem self-centered or selfish. The problem is that if you don’t, you will at some point render yourself unable to serve others and may even disqualify yourself from leading and cause damage to others.

Fatigue is often associated with poor decision making and as we discussed in an earlier blog post, we are all just one poor decision away from being disqualified from leading.

So how are you doing in regards to self-care? How are you caring for your soul? Your walk with the Lord? Do you have healthy rhythms of being quiet before Him, spending time in the Word and in worship?

How are you doing with the key relationships in your life? If married, are you investing heavily into that relationship? Just remember, well after you are no longer a leader in your ministry and they have moved on and even forgotten you, your spouse is the one that will still be with you. So, are you caring for them now? Investing in that relationship now?

How about your overall health? Physical, mental, and emotional? Are you caring for your body so that you extend your ministry? Are you growing and exercising your mind? Are you developing healthy relationships and thinking patterns that contribute to your emotional health?

With the right motivation, taking care of yourself in order to make yourself more effective is not only not selfish, it is a very necessary investment. Don’t make the mistake of not doing investing in your health.

Tony Schwartz has some excellent ideas on his website. Not sure of his faith background, but still he has some good advice. Also, check out Wayne Cordiero’s book, Leading on Empty. Great book. Also, his DVD Dead Leader Running is powerful.