Learning how to manage my energy and get to the end of each day still going strong is a skill set that I am working hard to learn and acquire, and also to pass on to others. Everyone struggles with weariness, and gets tired and discouraged and burnt out by life. The Biblical admonition is “do not grow weary in well doing”, “run the race set before you with endurance”, “in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary”. One of the keys to endurance is systematic rest. Systematic rest is resting by the clock and not waiting until you feel tired. Resting when you get tired is like looking for a gas station after you have run out of gas in your car. Every hour I rest for 5 minutes. Sometimes I close my eyes and just sit, other times I pull out my IPhone and look at the pictures of my grandkids and pray for them. If I have been at my desk studying or writing I will get up and walk over to the new building and back and pray while I walk. Often I work on a memory verse or read part of my daily Bible schedule. At home I really enjoy going out where my 55 gallon aquarium is with my brooder tilapia and sit in the chair I have set there and watch them swim around. 5 minutes of variation, mind shift, something fun, distracting, silly, is very powerful in restoring energy. It is not an easy discipline to develop because we just forget to do something that short and that often. For the person who struggles with tiredness getting this discipline down is more than worth the effort. I started this about 10 years ago when I read that walking for 1 minute for every 10 minutes of running in a marathon would give you a faster time then running the entire time or walking when you got tired. I tried it and found that I did indeed finish a bit faster and I felt way better at the end of a race and the next day. Systematic rest is not just sleeping for 8 hours every 24 hours, but getting a breather all through the day on a scheduled basis.