Day 6: A Day of Rest
Day 6 was this dog’s day to get a little rest and reflection from the hustle and bustle of the last week.
Now you might be holding up your hands and saying, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, now I thought you said that this was THIRTY days of discipline, I didn’t see anything in there about taking any days off.”
If so, you’re half wrong, but also half-right.
The creator of 30 Days of Discipline, as one of the habits (#12 on my list), states:
You can take a lazy [Saturday or] Sunday morning and afternoon, but [Saturday or] Sunday evening is used to prepare for the week ahead.
On [Saturday or] Sunday morning you can wake up later than normal, you can have yourself a big old breakfast of pancakes and French toast smothered in syrup. You can skip the pushups, body squats and sit-ups. You can spend an idle afternoon browsing the internet or watching TV. You can be lazy all morning and all afternoon on [Saturday or] Sunday.
…You better believe that I took advantage of that part of the program. In doing so, however, I got questions throughout the day about the program and whether is was “Christian” or Biblically-based. This was due to the habit prohibiting porn and masturbation as well as its inclusion of a day of rest sounded an awful lot like the concept of a Sabbath. The short answer is no, not exactly.
The 30 Days of Discipline program seems to incorporate some habits that flow from Biblical principles, but some of the reasons that the author supplies for those habits show that his motivations come from other places. The way I see it, you can do the right things for mostly good reasons, and achieve good results in some areas of your life, or you can do the right things for better, more nobler reasons and achieve greater things for yourself, your family, and the world around you.
I’m doing this program so that I can be a better husband, brother, son, friend, worker, and most of all, servant. Servant? Strange word huh? The ultimate example of a servant is Jesus Christ. Jesus was both human and divine, and lived his life, not towards the goal of reigning over his society and his people as an earthly king complete with riches, wealth, and armies, but instead with the purpose of sacrificing his life to save and rescue anyone who puts their faith in him. A life given in service of others. A life spent in service to others with the motivation of bringing glory to God is the life that I want to lead as someone who places my faith in Jesus. Believe me, I’m nowhere near the life of Jesus, but he is the one who I want to resemble more each day.
If you’re thinking about starting your own 30 days of discipline, and the “Jesus thing” isn’t your thing or the author’s reasons aren’t either, then come up with your own reasons. I think that by any objective measure, these are good habits to consider building into your life.
Getting back to the idea of a Day of Rest, you’re not off the hook for the entire day:
[Saturday or] Sunday night is a different story. Time needs to be set aside on [Saturday or] Sunday night to go over all the notes scrawled in your notebook. On [Saturday or] Sunday night you need to look over your previous ‘to-do’ lists and make sure everything has been finished in an acceptable way.
On [Saturday or] Sunday night you need to prepare for the week ahead. You need to make your ‘to-do’ list for Monday, but you also need an outline of how you want the week to go. You need to write down the plans you have for the week, what you want and need to accomplish, and how you will do it.
Preparation is key. Preparation is essential. [Saturday or] Sunday night will be used for preparation. After you have prepared for the week ahead you can go back to being a little lazy. But remember, Monday is just around the corner. Monday demands you wake up early and start the day full of fire, passion and energy. Monday is the start of everything. We start Monday with energy and we don’t stop until [Friday or] Saturday night.
So there it is, the catch: You gotta spend part of the day planning for the upcoming week. On first thought, that doesn’t seem entirely restful. After a little reflection though, a little planning can go a long way towards creating a less stressful and more productive week. Sitting down and charting out what you want to and need to accomplish for the upcoming week, day-by-day, systematically seems like something that I should have been doing a long time ago. Better late than never though. I’ll be sure to check back in on Day 12 or 13 to share the results.
To close out today’s episode and turn to a different subject, a few days ago I brought up Manfield’s Book of Manly Men, and I want to return to the subject in my never-ending quest to convince men to start reading AND FINISH this book.
In the last post on the topic, I shared Mansfield’s purpose in writing the book, today, we’ll look at the framework he provides, in the form of four maxims, for achieving true manhood:
1. MANLY MEN DO MANLY THINGS.
2. MANLY MEN TEND THEIR FIELDS.
3. MANLY MEN BUILD MANLY MEN.
4. MANLY MEN LIVE TO THE GLORY OF GOD.
Clearly, these require a little explanation. We’ll start with Maxim #1 for today and move on to the others in future posts.
Maxim #1 — Doing Manly Things: The author firmly subscribes to the belief that “true manhood comes from doing manly deeds.”
But he has an important disclaimer:
“By word like manly and manhood, I don’t mean the kind of behavior we see in the fake masculinity that surrounds us today. There’s nothing manly about a guy downing booze until he throws up in the street. There’s nothing manly about cruising for women like some predatory beast and then devouring them for pleasure before casting them aside. There’s nothing manly about making a child and then running like a coward before that child is born. There’s nothing manly about dominating a woman or treating her like a servant or leaving her with burdens that aren’t rightly hers.”
The author spends the entire book defining and illustrating what kinds of actions he is talking about, using historical examples of men who exemplified different character traits. And it. is. fire.
More to come tomorrow with Day 7, the end of the first week and nearly 20% completion of the entire 30 Days program. Stay tuned…
Quote of the Day
“…[Y]ou only know who a man is and what he believes by what he does. Not by what he sits around talking about. Not by what he says he feels. It’s only when he acts — when he does something — that we start to know what he is. Action is character. Manhood is action.”
~Stephen Manfield
Links to Past Episodes/Resources:
Day 2: “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth”
Day 5: Taking Matters Into Your Own Hands
Manfield’s Book of Manly Men: An Utterly Invigorating Guide to Being Your Most Masculine Self
If you have any feedback, please send me a message or leave it on my Facebook page or Twitter. This is a new project, and I’d love to hear your thoughts. Encouragement and criticism are always welcome.
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