Are You Busy?

Busy-1. full of activity
         2. cluttered with detail to the point of being distracted.

Yikes!  Is your life cluttered with detail to the point of being distracted?  I'm ashamed to tell you that lately my life has been a string of one activity after the next. Football, ballet, AWANA, volunteering, nursery, college classes, homeschool co-op, blah, blah, blah.  Every single thing on my list is a GOOD thing, but when we put them all together it's a disaster!!!

If you adhere to the Fly Lady method of cleaning your home, then you know that "clutter" is a curse word.  In fact, you're supposed to spend 15 minutes a day getting rid of clutter in your life.  That's easy to do when the clutter is junk mail piles, old magazines, and shoes in the entry way, but what if the clutter happens to be in the form of activities?  What if you have allowed too many "good" things into your life, instead of saving your time for the "great" things?

Tonight my husband was playing his guitar in our living room for the first time in months.  I love this man, and I love the way he plays his guitar.  In fact, the sound of my husband softly singing while strumming his guitar is one of the most soothing and calming activities in our home.  The fact that he's been too busy to play lately makes me want to scratch every nightly activity off of our schedule so that we can go back to evenings spent  playing boardgames with the kids, reading, and listening to my husband play his guitar.

As a family, we are constantly forced to re-evaluate our priorities, and remind ourselves of what our goals are.  We must be vigilant to say NO to anything that doesn't further our vision for our family.  A dear wise woman in our church just told me this week, that when asked to do something in the church, a "no" is just as spiritual as a "yes"!  I love that!

The thing that bothers me the most about being "busy" is that my life is cluttered to the point of being distracted from God....the one who matters most.  When I'm busy, my prayer life slips, my bible reading slips, family devotions start to slip, and then life starts spinning out of control.  Then I cry out to God for help only to realize that He's been waiting patiently while I'm running around like a chicken with my head cut off, wondering why I don't feel close to Him. I try every solution except for making Him a priority in my life again...the one thing that will calm the craziness.

Finally, the lightbulb goes off in my head and  I realize that I must turn back to my savior, apologize for neglecting my relationship with Him, and pick up right where we left off....meeting together in the quietness of the early morning in my favorite chair next to the woodstove with my glass of tea and my sword of the spirit...my Bible.



 "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you." Matthew 6:33

The sky above me at sunset last week.