Something I learned to do as a consultant was to budget my time, very very similar to how Dave Ramsey teaches to budget money. Both time and money are valuable, but only time is priceless.
A couple weeks ago, I took the time to fill out a weekly plan sheet because my schedule was changing some and I needed to be sure that the things I need to get done get put in the appropriate time slots. Of course the way to fill these things out is to fill it in as if it were the perfect day & to live a flexible life around it. Balance and all. So, each category of your life gets a color: purple for God, blue for family, pink for “me”, green for work, etc... I think for most of us with children at home have weeks completely shaded with 3- 4 of these colors. I got it all filled out with pretty colors & good intentions. I still hold to those good intentions; however, I have not had 1 day work out like planned. My plan has to do with getting up earlier and of course that entails going to bed earlier; spending prayer & worship time with God, study/ blog time, & reading scripture; I also homeschool 2 of my children; and work out among some of the other things managing a family of 6 entails. 1 Peter 5:8 warns us to “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (NIV). I noticed toward the end of the first couple of nights that I spent all day long just “doing”. You know when the “doing” isn’t doing anything of substance at all and at the end of the day you wonder what you did all day. Sometimes the doing is ME trying to control the steps I’m taking forward and the outcome of any given situation. I can tell you 1 thing I know I didn’t do those days... spend time with my Savior. When I woke up, He and I spoke and then off I went, “doing”. I don’t think we even home-schooled those days. sigh. I got caught up in the stuff and lost focus of my necessary daily accomplishments; Bible Study, Prayer, School, Working Out, cooking healthy for my family... These things fill my day to the brim and if 1 thing gets added or if I focus too long on 1 thing then the whole lot gets neglected. He wants to carrie me daily, instead of my attention be diverted by ANY other given thing.
I got to the end of that first day, laid in bed and flipped through Pinterest to take a minute to relax and when I finished God said to me, “now that you’re finished everything that you wanted to do today now its my turn.” He had not been first at all that day!! It was 12:30AM and I was ready to drift off; I sat up opened my Bible then prayed. The best thing is to spend time with Him even when it doesn’t feel convenient. The next several days including last night were very similar to that first day!! ‘I HAVE GOT TO CHANGE SOMETHING!!’ I’ve learned the hard way over and over that if I do nothing to change, I will absolutely shrink backward. My (our) only hope is to make a conscience effort to move forward, to be “self-controlled and alert” for our enemy’s #1 goal is to take us down. He wants our time as soon as our eyes open and all day; we have to find consentrated time with Him and He can change our hearts and grow fruit of the Spirit in us! What am I doing???? What??? and What are you going to do to stop shrinking backward, being picked over by a lion?? UGHHHHH!! I have to stop!! Make a deliberate decision everyday to focus my time on God, to “give Him the time of day”, to read His word and think on it & allow Him to change me through it and through whatever means He moves to change me. This takes daily action. The Bible also says to pray with out stopping... so be in constant communication with the God of the Universe. I think its so cool that someone soooo big even bothers caring about me, much less is desperately seeking my attention!!! and your’s too. There is no better day to start than today, I remember believing the lie that ‘well when I graduate it’ll be easier to spend the time...’ or ‘when I start working full time I’ll have more time to...’ or ‘when I get married...’ or ‘once we have children...’ Time just gets swept away; it is like dust in the wind. DO IT NOW! Make the change. Oh, gosh! did you feel that push back? I did. The push back is the lie that ‘Im comfortable here, and I don’t need to change or ‘but this’ or ‘but that’. Change is difficult and I really don’t want to go through the motions because I have a feeling it’ll hurt. Usually, or very often, there is a sense of great peace on the other side of that push back. I’ve absolutely experienced the drastic change for good He accomplishes in me when I’m consistently spending time in prayer and Bible study. He will do that again in me and wants to do it for you too. Galations 5:22-23 lists the Fruit of the Spirt: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, & self-control. If you’re a Christian, He has already given you these things and He wants to develop them in us too. If you’re not a Christian, believe me when I tell you that God Loves you and all that’s necessary is to come to Him and ask for Him. I talked about that in my first post :).
This picture of meeting a friend for dinner keeps coming to mind. We’re good friends and we care for each other but we sit there in silence the entire meal and in this picture I think thats what a good friend is, someone who is around. Or worse yet, I go to meet my friend for dinner, but sit with someone else and enjoy an entire evening with them without ever acknowledging my friend who I came to meet. Now, I want a good conversation and some laughs like the next person and God does too; He even wants so much more than that, He wants genuine intimacy. We can’t get that sitting there silent or spending our time thinking or doing a million other things. We have to move into an active relationship with Him just like we would in our most intimate human relationships.
I think its about time I figure out how to do that again. Meet my Savior and not get wrapped up in “doing.” What about you?