How To Avoid Burnout & Protect Your Walk With God As A Parent

Have you ever felt like something was off about your well-being but you couldn’t point out exactly what?

For example, maybe you felt extra irritable, less tolerant than usual and impatient, but you didn’t understand your behavior.

Recently I experienced something like this and the Lord gave me a download about what my problem was that surprised me.

At first I tried to pin down what was bothering me, but each factor I came up with was only surface level. Then the Holy Spirit pointed out clearly the reason for my attitude and behavior was due to my lack of physical care.

Over the last few months I pushed my body with lack of sleep, lack of exercise, lack of self-care and lack of fun in general (yes, doing things you enjoy is important for your health too).

I was so consumed with the daily demands and responsibilities of motherhood that I reached a point where something had to change immediately because I couldn’t bear it any longer.

I became very difficult to deal with, and found myself feeling frustrated, unhappy, and very intolerant of things that annoyed me.

I couldn’t see how my lack of physical and mental care was causing this, and in turn affecting my walk with Christ.

Making Changes

One of the changes I realized I had to make quickly was changing the way I structured my family life. That meant getting extra help with my kids, and creating space in my day to be alone with God and my husband at designated times.

Not having time to myself was breaking me, and the Holy Spirit showed me I needed white space in my life in order to function as the best wife and mother that I can be.

It’s also essential for my marriage to have alone time with my husband so we can have meaningful conversations without being interrupted by our kids.

Lastly, I made the decision to take more time for myself – be it doing my eye brows at home, taking extra time to fix my hair in the morning and look presentable, or simply having a phone conversation with another sister in Christ that would edify me spiritually. While all these things may not seem like a necessity, I realized how important they were for my own well-being.

Physical Factors Have Spiritual Impact

If you thought your physical life had no impact on your walk with God, you will one day come to a realization like I did by learning the hard way.

The truth is, how we feel mentally and physically spills over into our relationship with God and other people. It can even cause us to sin when we find ourselves short on love and patience, simply because we didn’t take proper care of our body’s needs.

Remember that God created you with a mind, soul, and body. Each of those aspects of your being need proper care in order for you to function the way God wants you too.

While our relationship with God should always come before anything else, let’s not neglect the other God-ordained needs we have in the name of being “spiritual” or “hardworking.”

Are there some changes you need to make to avoid burnout and care for yourself better?