We have been in the midst of this great sermon series at
church, entitled Too Busy To Listen. I
also just finished reading Lysa TerKeurst’s new book, The Best Yes. The two have spoken to me so deeply,
especially with this being the start of a new school year for my kids, and my
return to my second year at my part-time job at preschool. While I love both of these things (my children’s school and my job/ministry), I lovingly refer to
the school year as the “rat race”. With
fast paced early mornings getting three kids out the door, carpooling to school
15-20 minutes from home pending traffic, the homework/dinner/shower/bedtime hours,
and adding 14 very cute 4 year old preschoolers three mornings a week to that mix, it does not fail
to keep me busy and my schedule full.
And we refuse to pack our evenings with extracurriculars like many
do!
The line that has stuck with me the most from our series at
church is this: “Busyness is the enemy
of intimacy.” Intimacy referring to our
relationships with God, our spouse, our children, our friends… How convictingly
true. We all know how to talk to God. But do
we know how to listen to God? To hear
Him when he speaks? Communication is a
two way street. It requires both talking
and listening. Lysa says it so eloquently
in her book, “Conversational threads are what make up the fabric of relationships.” You can’t listen to God in the busyness of
life. God wants to spend one on one time
with each of us, and yet I’d venture to guess the busier life gets, the lower
on the totem pole that gets, until often it is completely eliminated from our
daily lives. It happens to me, too. “If we are to be Best Yes girls, we have to
long for unbroken companionship with God.” –LT
The single best investment you can make in each day is your
alone time with God. Ideally first thing
in the morning. Scripture repeats itself
over and over about spending our early waking moments with the Father. Quiet, alone moments, in His Word, listening
to what He has to say. Refusing to let
the busyness of the world crowd out the most important thing. There is nothing like giving the first
moments of the day to God. I have found
that I am constantly rewarded by saying NO to the rat race and saying YES to
Jesus first in the morning. Before I
need to wake the kids. Before the rat
race begins. Before I so much as climb
into the hamster wheel and start packing lunches and fixing breakfast for the
umpteenth time. That time with Him will
influence how you prioritize the rest of your day, the things you will say Yes
and No to. It puts me in a “Jesus first”
frame of mind, which has the power to change the atmosphere and dynamic of my
entire day. If you give Him that time,
He will be sure to show up. The solution
to busyness is reprioritizing around intimacy with the Father. “Seek
FIRST His kingdom and his righteousness.” Matthew 8:33a Ultimately, if you are too busy to spend time
with God, you are too busy. Setting the
clock 15-30 minutes earlier is SO worth it.
Sit down with your Bible in front of you. Ask God to speak to you. He will.
I loved what our HCC Morrisville Campus Pastor said today as
he wrapped up our service. “You do what
ONLY you can do.” That doesn’t make a
whole lot of sense at first. But he
explained. I am the ONLY person who can
have a personal relationship with God for me.
No one else in the world can do that for me. And I
am the ONLY person in this world who can be a wife to my husband and a mom to
my children. Those are things that only
I can do. I must do those well, because
those are the things that matter. Anyone
can be a preschool teacher, anyone can be PTF Secretary (well, according to
LeAnne, our PTF President, I’m the bomb, so maybe not, haha), anyone can lead
that Bible Study or serve in Common Grounds at church. That’s not to say all those other things are
bad. They are not. They are all good things. But they are not the things ONLY I can do. Concentrate the majority of your energy and
time into the things ONLY you can do, and all that other stuff will take care
of itself. Prioritizing time with God
will bring healthy limits/boundaries to your busyness. Much of what we do anyway is measureable in
the short run, but is neither measureable or memorable in the long run. Truth, right?
“Whenever you say yes to something, there is less of you for
something else. Make sure your yes is
worth the less.” -LT
Blessings-
dawn
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