What is Enough?

The current generation of moms are on the go, in the car, every day scheduled, maxed out and exhausted. Thoughts race through our minds wondering if we have managed to fit EVERY opportunity for our children into the week...? Have we provided social, academic, athletic, music and creative thinking time into the lives of our children. Of course we can't forget ourselves so we fit our personal schedules into the rest of our "free time"...working out, keeping up our beauty, networking in the neighborhood, making a little extra cash on the side, contributing to the social well being of our community, calling our local congressman to give our voice on the latest political topic, spiritual growth, emotional recovery over the first thirty years of life.... where does it STOP? Oh, and then there is that man that we married and call the father of our children... yeah he wants our time too!

Here is what God gave us when He created time (roughly):

24 hours a day
-8 hours of sleep a day
-16 hours a day awake
-8 hours for work

after sleep and work we have....
-8 hours a day "free time",
*BONUS...16 hours on Saturday AND Sunday is mandatory rest!

All the "Stuff" we jam in is more than the basic needs He created us with
1) food/water
2) shelter
3) love/relationship with Him and others

Is that ENOUGH TIME? God thought so when He created the heavens and the earth otherwise He would have made things different!

Matthew 6:25-34“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t there more to life than food and more to the body than clothing? Look at the birds in the sky: They do not sow, or reap, or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you more valuable than they are? And which of you by worrying can add even one hour to his life? Why do you worry about clothing? Think about how the flowers of the field grow; they do not work or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glory was clothed like one of these! And if this is how God clothes the wild grass, which is here today and tomorrow is tossed into the fire to heat the oven, won’t he clothe you even more, you people of little faith? So then, don’t worry saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For the unconverted pursue these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But above all pursue his kingdom and righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. So then, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Today has ENOUGH trouble of its own.

Application/Challenge:
This is hard for me to challenge you because now I am accountable too!
Each day I want you to track your time every day...awake and asleep. This is your week to do data collection. Then at the end of the week I want you to go through and cross through everything that was an "elective" in your daily living. I want us to all pray over the things that we think are important and test that against what God thinks is important. If you have put your trust in Christ the Holy Spirit who dwells in you will reveal the answer to your questions. We are each unique and so it is best to trust God for our individual schedules.

Learning to let God set my schedule,
Annie

Disclaimer: We are all unique and work schedules, baby schedules and other misc things may alter your time allotted in a day compared to the "generic" schedule I have written in the blog. Feel free to sketch out your own time allotment!

Fear to Faith

As a child on the outside I appeared like a normal young girl, but on the inside I lived in fear. I feared my parents would divorce, I feared being alone, I feared someone would abduct me, I feared failure, I feared nothing was in my control. My fears paralyzed me and I struggled in the dark to find some form of warm light to rescue me from my internal nightmare.

At ten years old my mother surrendered her life to Christ, in doing so she surrendered her children to Him as well. Even when I did not know Him, He knew me. He was always by my side watching over me until the day I learned His name and asked Him to live in my heart. God is so good and faithful. He rescued me from a life that was doomed for destruction and gave me hope. He took away my fear and replaced it with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.

Even though God is good and faithful, the flesh is not. I had ten years of my life controlled by fear that forced me into habits and patterns that were not from God. No one ever told me to "let go and let God." Instead I had to survive, to protect, to preserve myself. My struggle for control did not suddenly disappear when I accepted Christ as my savior. I had to learn how to yield my will to the Father; I had to learn what the Father's will was. I was given a heart transplant but my earthly body remained. While we live in the body on earth we are in the process of renewing our minds day by day. God sees us as saints, we are righteous before His throne but because of the nature of our earthly vessel we are still capable of sin and we often become victim to its temptations. No one is good, not one.

I am here to shout from the rooftop that there is hope for those who place their faith in Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross because we are no longer a slave to sin, no longer powerless to temptation, no longer alone in our battles.

Romans 5:3-5 we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; perseverance proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Our suffering is used to "bring about" that which was given to us the moment we received Christ. The Greek word for bring is katergazomai which means to bring out something that is already present. If you proclaim to be a Christ follower you have the power to overcome anything by the inner strength God has given you through the Holy Spirit.

Life Application: Take time to ask God to reveal what battle you are fighting that you need to hand over to the Father. Ask God to reveal where you are relying on your own strength, knowledge and power and turn it over to the sovereign Lord on high!

Marriage Application: same as above...focus on your marriage struggle, your thoughts, attitudes and actions towards your spouse.

Going deeper: 2 Chronicles 20 is an excellent narrative story which reveals God taking over the battle.

Suffering Alongside Your Mate

There are two types of suffering...

1) Suffering as a consequence to sin

2) Suffering as a testing of our faith

The first one is obvious, cause and effect. We see this daily with our children. You disobey, you suffer the consequence. The second one is more puzzling. The best example of this is in the book of Job. A man who was blameless and upright, fearing God and turning away from evil. If you read through Job 1:6-12 you can see the conversation that takes place between God and Job. God initiates the topic of Job and gives permission to Satan to attack his life. WHAT! Why did the Lord chose to test Job? God is sovereign and He knew the results. Here is what Job says at the end of his trial BEFORE the blessing and restoration of the second half of his life (Job 42:12-17).

Job 42:5 "I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,but now my eye has seen you."

Job learned the lesson and was proven faithful to His God but along the way the people around him were less than encouraging to him. As I look at the life of Job I am often brought back to the second chapter where his wife had the following conversation with him:

Then his wife said to him, “Are you still holding firmly to your integrity? Curse God, and die!” But he replied, “You’re talking like one of the godless women would do! Should we receive what is good from God, and not also receive what is evil?” In all this Job did not sin by what he said.Job 2:9-10

Ladies...since we are one flesh with our husbands we SHARE in his suffering. Not only do we experience trials of our own but we are called to support our husband in his. We are not called to carry the burden but to support the one who is struggling. Wives, we can support through prayer, words of encouragement, a welcoming home and physical affection. You know your husband better than anyone. Ask God to show you how to support him as God has uniquely designed him.

My brothers and sisters, consider it nothing but joy when you fall into all sorts of trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect effect, so that you will be perfect and complete, not deficient in anything. But if anyone is deficient in wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without reprimand, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed around by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord, since he is a double-minded individual, unstable in all his ways. James 1:2-8

If you are looking to dig deeper I would recommend a study by Kay Arthur called Living Victoriously in Difficult Times