Prioritizing your Life

Our lives are so busy. You here some people complain about having too much to do and others thrive on constantly being busy.  When you are in a season of life that you are so busy do you feel closest to God and worry free? Maybe it is just me but I know when I am constantly busy that’s when I feel the farthest from God.  I feel like I don’t have enough pieces of myself to go around. My husband needs a piece, my kids need a piece, other moms need a piece, my son’s soccer team needs a piece, moms group needs a piece and there is no pieces left to give to God. How come I gave all my pieces away to temporary things and not the everlasting God who can make my pieces last longer and go farther than anyone else? Living like this is exhausting. You crawl into bed each night with a big messy empty plate and God is calling you and saying, Hey, Give me your pieces and I can multiply them.

It’s getting closer to the time where people start making resolutions for the upcoming year. Maybe yours is keeping the house cleaner, go on more date nights, lose weight.. again, or so many other goals we put for ourselves. Last year I decided to slow things down. Not to do any “extra” activities but to spend the year at a slower pace spending more time with family. It is hard sometimes saying No to people but it has been worth it. I have said no to awana, a moms group, children’s sports, swimming lessons, and so on.

How do you figure out what to say yes to and what to say no to? First you need to make a list of what is the most important to you. For example my list is first God, second my husband, and third my children. So when things come up I can take them to my list. First, does it glorify God? Will it help me to grow in the Lord and would He approve of my decision.  Second, will my husband approve of my decision? Will it be profitable for him and build up my husband? Will it show him my respect for him? Third, Will it cost my children? Will my decision effect the time or the quality of time I have with my children? 

Say for example my daughter wants to take swimming lessons. First I don’t think swimming lessons are bad and I don’t think God would either. Second, if I did let her do that it would mean I would have to be gone 2 nights a week driving her to and from. Dinner would be sloppy because I would be in a hurry. The house, dinner, husband and budget would all be negatively affected and my husband would get a more frazzled wife at the end of the day. He also likes me home when he is home from work and that would cut into our family time.  Maybe swimming lessons in not an obstacle for you but you have been invited to join another bible study. First, being in a bible study is a great thing if it isn’t going to negatively affect your time with your family. Yes, Bible studies are nice but if you can’t participate in that one study is God going to be disappointed? You can study your bible at home and God can show you things in your quite time that you would have never seen because you were too busy doing your bible study homework to have quality quiet time with God. Second, again if it requires me to be gone from my family one night week it may not be worth it.

It’s easy to say yes but it’s also easy to say no when you get used to it. It’s like exercise, when you first start it’s really hard to do a push up but the more you practice the easier it becomes. This year I could have been busy 3 or 4 nights a week if I would have kept saying yes. My kids want to go to Awana and that’s not bad for them but it’s not at my church. So, that’s another night gone and being busy. Even though I know that is good for them, this year we had to make that sacrifice.

This year has been an amazing year. It has been slow and more peaceful then ever. Yes, I will continue this on to next year except I have started a book club that will meet once a month.  One night a month I will get my mommy break. Where I can get out of the house and spend time just with other moms and we can talk and learn from each other. My husband will miss me but I have his full blessing because it is only once a month. As a family we do church on Sundays and we have a small group from our church that meets once a week. Those are important to me and our family does attend those two things weekly. It is one of my goals for the year that we only have that to do weekly. One night a week we have our family small group from church and that is the only constant outing from home each week.

It is hard to prioritize your life according to what’s important. Sometime I feel like my kids are really missing out. Instead of being at home doing chores I feel like they should be taking dance or something. However, I know that being at home as a family and spending time teaching my kids about life and God is much more important to their future then taking dance class for a few years. Which will last an eternity?