When your plate is too full

This weekend was crazy so when I finally got a breather I began to think. As mothers, daughters, co-workers, friends, sisters and every other hat we wear we get so busy. I sometimes equate my life to a thanksgiving dinner plate. How many years do we go to the Thanksgiving buffet line and say I’m just going to take a little of everything and then at the end our plate has mounds of food that we can’t finish. So many times we take a little of “everything” in our lives, a class here, a project there, a responsibility way over there. It’s so easy to take all these little things and have them create a problem bigger than us. We only have so much time in a day, week, month, and year. I love my church and one reason I love it so much is the easy to understand and practical messages our Pastor gives to us from the Bible. Each year our Pastor preaches on stewardship and one of the things that he explained to us is that God has made us stewards or managers of the time he has given us. The verse we all know so well is 1 Corinthians 4:2, “Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.” God expects us to manage the time he gives us by balancing what we need to do, have to do, and want to do. As military spouses or anyone that finds themselves without their spouse for any length of time prioritization becomes even more important. I have found that by taking on so much with Jon gone has caused me to miss out on some things that I really need to be doing. God entrusts us with time, we need to learn to portion our plates so that we do get everything we need, and still leave space for a little bit of what we want because lets face it we all want a little dessert on our plates. That thing that we do just for us and the great thing is with God’s guidance and a little time management we can have our cake and eat it too! I suggest taking a piece of paper and folding in half. List all of your responsibilities on one side and some things that you would like to incorporate into your life. By looking for little pockets of wasted time you would be surprised what you can fit in your life. I noticed by taking my lunch break and packing something easy to eat in 10 minutes I would have 35 minutes left to study. Little things like that can save you tons of time and leave more space for the important things like reading bedtime stories and checking for monsters under the bed! So break out the planners, your plate so to speak, and start to fill. With the correct portion control you will be well on your way to a great meal, or life for that matter….