Keepers of the Home - July 2007 Notes
We have talked about GOAL's a few months ago, but I wanted to talk about GOAL's in relationship to scheduling our days to count important what is of eternal value and to be able to accomplish the things God has for us and the tyranny of the urgent which so often is a stumbling block to us achieving the things that the Lord has for us to do.
GOAL's: Godly Ordained Activities for my Life:
Are goals that are based upon God's principles, and directions as well as our husbands needs, and desires as he leads our families. These goals are also things that the Lord would have me to do, to meet the needs of my husband and family as well as serve in my community as the seasons of my life permit.
These goals can also be goals that help equip me and that refresh and strengthen me to become the Proverbs 31 woman that I desire to be. The areas that these goals might be in are personal growth, marriage, parenting, physical, home making skills, organization, home schooling etc. They are spiritual goals, physical goals, and mental goals. They are goals that affect every area of my life as a child of God, woman, wife and mother.
Tyranny of the Urgent: (The Red Letter Bookstore has this booklet for sale. I hope you will purchase this booklet. I pray it will encourage you and help you, as it has me!)
Our greatest danger is letting the urgent things of life crowd out the important!
We live in a constant TENSION between the urgent and the important.
Many of us feel that if we just had more hours in our day then that would somehow solve our dilemma of not having enough time to do all we need to or want to in our day. But is this true? God tells us to think on what is true in Phil. 4:8-9 If we had 36 hours in our day we'd find ourselves filling all 36 hours, .and feeling that 36 hours wasn't enough time either!
In our society today we are living with NO MARGIN! We spend to the max our time, money, and energy! We are teaching our children to do the same! Years ago, people saw the value of building in a "margin" to their lives. They did not spend their entire paycheck and then some. They made sure they left room for some margin, some extra, just in case. Today, no matter how much our husbands make, we tend to spend the whole thing, we live to the max. Many families have little or no savings, .no margin. We don't just do this with our money, we do it with our time as well. We find it difficult to budget our time and our money!
God worked and then he rested. He told us to do the same. He set up a pattern for us to live our lives by. All throughout his Word, we can read many verses that talk about the value of working hard and about being diligent, responsible, and faithful. But God also tells us that we need to live our lives making sure that our priorities are lined up with Him and with what HE tells us is important in life.
Luke 9:23-25 says "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross DAILY and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me, will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? "
Many times we are striving and struggling in our lives to attain what the world says is important, but in the end we will lose what is truly important!
There are sooo many pressures all around us today telling us exactly the opposite of what God's Word says to us! Newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, movies etc. all are telling us many times exactly the opposite of what God's will would be. So we have to be wise and we have to go to the real source of TRUTH, .God and his Word!
It is not just the world around us, .our own hearts are sinful and our flesh is weak!
We are selfish and