Time Machine

January 15, 2010 at 9:39 am (Being a mom, parenting and balance, Books, movies, music and quotes I like, Christianity, prayer, sermons and bible verses, Happiness, peace and letting go, Helping others and giving back, Marriage, Organizing, What I am learning lately)

Well first of all I have to ask- has anyone out there read the book “The Grey Gentleman”? It is one of my favorite books and discusses the issue of being busy, rushing and hurrying in our lives.

Time has become one of the things I think most about every single day, thoughts like; how much time do I have on this earth? what do I want to accomplish in the time that I have? how will I manage the time I have efficiently? how can I save more time? what are time wasters? It’s funny because I am obsessed with time management–while determined to not be too busy or to be ”hurried”.

The American culture is very rushed, pack more in, do more, make more, have more, more, more, more! In doing this so many people I observe are just WAY TOO BUSY! The sad part is that they always act like they have no choice, no control and no say in the matter. Do all your kids HAVE to be in activities? Does every day HAVE to be packed with something? Does all your time NEED to be scheduled? OK, so I am a compulsive scheduler I must confess, but I schedule lots of “down time” and “open time” and don’t feel as rushed as I used to.

Some of the biggest time eaters are jobs and kids: how many kids have you decided to have? why did you decide to have that many? what do you want your family life to look like? how do you want your kids to remember their time with you?
And about the jobs people, sooo many people work way harder and way longer then what they NEED to do. Why? So they can have more stuff–let’s be real. Your family won’t remember the stuff but the TIME TOGETHER.

As I reflect about today and what I want to carry out I know my priorities in order: GOD, family, friends…then housework. There is always housework, I am never done and am constantly trying to outsmart my to do list so I can spend more of my time on meaningful pursuits (like blogging ha ha!:)

One word I think a lot about is the word “summation” what will be the summation of my life? The defining aspect? the overall effect? Will I change someone’s life? Will I help someone’s marriage? Will I help a child have a brighter future? My goal is to not waste the time God has given me–time is a GIFT. To loosely quote a dying queen of England: “all my possessions for another hour”. Do you value each hour you are given?

What are some things that can get done in 1 hour:
-a phone call with a hurting friend that will help him or her make good decisions
-a car or email to someone you love
-a devotional with your child to teach them to respect adults
-de-clutter a time waster in your life-a closet-a room maybe?
-snuggle with your spouse and watch a movie
-read your child a book
-pray and find inspiration

The list is endless, but time isn’t…not on this earth anyway. I have been thinking about a friend of mine who is in the ICU and wondering if it is her time yet–I sure hope not!

Anyway, time to go be efficient while not rushing;) I crack myself:) Hopefully my babbling made sense.

“H and G” -name that movie 

Jules

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Troubled Waters

January 14, 2010 at 8:20 am (Christianity, prayer, sermons and bible verses, Happiness, peace and letting go, Uncategorized)

“Eternal Father, strong to save, whose arm hath bound the restless wave….from rock and tempest, fire and foe, protect us wheresoe’er we go” -William Whiting

John 6:16-24
What am I afraid of? Change, the unknown, loss of control, failure, illness and calamity. I need to be willing to invite Jesus “into my boat” so that the storm may be calmed and I can reach my destination. Why are we so stubborn? Why do we do things the hard way? Our stubborn pride! We don’t want to admit we can’t do things on our own without God’s help.

If you feel your boat (life) is crossing troubled waters, let Jesus in (or back in) chose trust, chose faith–take a risk!

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“Let Nothing Be Wasted”

January 13, 2010 at 9:06 am (Christianity, prayer, sermons and bible verses, Happiness, peace and letting go, Health, nutrition and natural living, Helping others and giving back, What I am learning lately)

John 6:12-13

Jesus Fed the 5000 which is the miracle in the story, but something I noticed this morning while reading is that after he fed everyone he gathered up the extras and said; “let nothing be wasted.” Why did He say that? Was it to show that God provided to the point over overflowing?-sure, was it to also to remind us not to waste when God provides?-I believe it is!

In a society of MORE, MORE, MORE! We have all become so wasteful and no longer treat God’s provisions in our lives as sacred, to have food and shelter in excess and all the luxuries we have is a privilege not afforded to over 70% of the worlds population!

How much do we waste and take for granted, throw away (guilty as charged) and not appreciate what we have? I think most of us have become so spoiled and used to having-we have forgotten what it feels like to not have.

Remember a time when you were short on money and got a bill in the mail that you couldn’t pay. Remember the dread, fear and anxiety you felt about it. Is there someone you know who may need something you have? Something you have or were going to throw away?

Try donating, sharing, giving-it feels AMAZING! If Jesus the Son of God thought not wasting was important-shouldn’t we?

In my own life I have always felt like I am generous towards others and not too wasteful, buuuuuut recently God has convicted me to repent in the area of recycling. I never thought of it as a big deal, but God created this beautiful world for us to live in-and who am I to destroy it? I never liked the “environmentalist type” (sorry if your one of them) I just found them annoying and “preachy” but now I feel I can recycle due to my devotion to God, not from some “guilt trip” someone gives me.
->Now all I need is the Town of Windsor Sanitation to give me a bin!! I have asked 3 times!! Hello?? (deep breaths).

OK, focus Jules, anyway in conclusion, I think that focusing on what we have and not what we don’t have, recycling and being open-handed towards others is a VERY important aspect of Christianity. I see soooo many Christians who are so diligent in most areas yet fall short in the area of frugality and living in a non wasteful manner. We can make excuses or think God doesn’t care about that. But if Jesus did-we can find inspiration to as well!

A great site to give stuff away and recycle stuff on is: http://www.freecycle.org/

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~The Fixation on Time in Relation to Faith~

January 12, 2010 at 10:26 pm (Christianity, prayer, sermons and bible verses, Happiness, peace and letting go)

I was thinking the other day after having a major breakthrough in my life about something I had prayed about for 9 years-how much TIME ELAPSING impacts my faith.

Have you ever heard someone say; “if God answered my prayers..maybe I would believe in Him!” or “what’s the point of praying? -it makes no difference anyway.”

I found myself doubting God’s faithfulness to answering my prayers….of course they can’t all be answered with “yes” but I like to get answers from prayers like: “help me understand”….” help me surrender”….. “show me the way”….I expect and believe that God is a God of clarity and not chaos or ambiguity. When I feel confused I usually struggle in my faith, I have an overly active mind and always need to know WHY;)

Anyway, the point I am trying to make in my ramblings is that IMAGINE IF THERE WERE NO TIME? After all “a day is like a thousand years in the eyes of God” 2 Peter 3:8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness.

I think if we stopped wanting all of our prayers to be answered within minutes, hours, weeks, months even years…we would be a lot happier. What if we trusted in God’s timing to the point of being willing and able to wait patiently for our desires and dreams to be fulfilled. Try to imagine if you were planning billions of peoples lives out over millions of earth transformations in preparing for an eternal home for all souls who choose a life of love….it really changes the urgency of our petty requests! The good news though that I am delighted to discover personally is that just as any busy loving parent does; our Father still hears all of our requests and does answer them ALL in His time, in His way an according to His plan.

The real question is do I REALLY live for “eternal bliss” (heaven) or “imperfect, passing, trivial things” (this life)???

I have been thinking about heaven a lot more and how it actually seems imaginable now…I used to not feel at all intrigued by it as I really enjoy THIS LIFE (most of the time-unless depressed) and couldn’t imagine a place with things I loved MORE. I even wondered what a place with no suffering would feel like….I am quite used to having to work for things and overcome things to attain joy and had a hard time visualizing pure joy for no reason.

Anyway when you think about fairness, pain, suffering, injustice and why God allows bad things to happen….it appears to me to make a lot more sense when you take TIME out of the question:
If all are judged and treated at the end of this life according to their deeds and all are rewarded or punished at that time-then life is fair-just at the end-not the duration. If you think of starvation for 60 years in comparison to infinity in heaven it seems more reasonable. Although I don’t believe God wants people to suffer unfairly, He allows free will in on THIS earth to exist, while patiently hoping all will repent and enter into His eternal reign under which complete justice will only exist forever!

In conclusion, I don’t think God sees time the way we do, it may even be irrelevant to Him, He may only think in eternal terms, so lets stop trying to make God fit into our limited minds, but let’s expand our own concepts of reality, time, fairness, perspective and justice. God is above we are below, we can’t see what He sees or know what He knows.

But I can tell you what I know–not much!!! :)

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“who are you Lord?”

February 15, 2009 at 4:10 pm (Christianity, prayer, sermons and bible verses)

Today’s. sermon was about Saul’s conversion on the road to Damascus and how he asked the questions “who are you Lord?” and “what do you want me to do?”

We cannot know what to do in our spiritual walk unless we really know God deeply and in an ongoing fashion.

In my own life the ways I am “knowing God deeper” are in the areas of honesty and action.

Honesty- I am learning to tell myself the truth in the following ways:

Health-my health does not “happen to me” but is a result of my good or bad habbits. Yes genetics plays a role-of course–but what I do with it is what matters.

Happiness-it comes from God as a direct result of “the spirit of God” and serving and helping others. As a Christian it has taken me oer 10 years to really believe in my core that this is true- I wasted many years trying to make myself happy through accomplishments and perfectionism–needless to say it didn’t work;)

I am now learning to speak my truth fearlessly and I believe God will use this to heal me and to help others.

As I learn to be real with others, I can speak God’s truth to others and give them the courage to speak their truth as well.

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Hello world!

February 14, 2009 at 3:08 am (Staying in touch, Uncategorized)

Hi Everyone!

I am sooo excited to have started my own blog! It’s late so I am just setting up the site tonight, but watch for new posts soon!

P & L Jules

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