Formula for Busy People II

BALANCE

I once heard a speaker suggest we plan our daily schedules to include tasks we:

• MUST do
• SHOULD do
• WANT to do

For example, we must feed and provide for our families, we really should make that phone call to a friend, and we want to start a new book or new project. The speaker urged men and women to put balance into their days.

This piggybacks nicely with the previous post that emphasized the importance of establishing rich devotional lives and setting goals and priorities when dealing with today’s fast-paced world. Now the challenge is to bring some order to our tasks so we can enjoy the simplicity and peace, and even fun that God offers.

Life to the Full

 

The must/should/want principle might help you accomplish tasks efficiently so there’s time to enjoy the abundant life Jesus speaks of in the book of John. “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10)

Try this:

List about 20 things you enjoy. They can be small, like:

• ordering a decadent, calorie-laden latte
• browsing through a new magazine
• planting a garden
• walking through a hardware store to see all the new gadgets
• renting a movie
• playing on the swings with a child
• hiking a wildlife trail
• camping with friends
• learning a new skill
• taking a day trip to…wherever

Sprinkle one or two of the items on your list into your week as little rewards for yourself.  In doing this you will be living out God’s desire for you to experience life, “…to the full.”

We get so engrossed in caring for others or in carrying out responsibilities that we often neglect to care for ourselves and just have fun. Pretend you are your mom or dad who wants to do something special for their child. That child would be you!

Think about the activities of a typical day and see if you can categorize them into must, should, want groupings. Are you out of balance in one of the areas? What can you do to remedy that? Can you use this suggestion in planning your future days? It not only will help balance out your life, it may make you more efficient and perhaps more fun to be around!

God's Joy & Peace

 

Bottom line is God wants us to experience joy and peace. In this passage from John 10, Jesus calls himself the Gate through which the sheep (believers) will enter, be saved, and find pasture. He concludes by emphasizing the reason for all this is so we can experience abundant life. He wants us to be hard-working, responsible and focused but he also desires we have the fun of being sons and daughters of a King. Go and enjoy life to the full!