Category Archives: Relaxation

Healthy Margins

The last two weeks have been a blur for me. I feel like 6 months worth of activity and work have happened over the last two weeks.

These are the times I find I start to doubt myself and even become a little stressed. That is why I value margin sio much.

One of the things I learned early in my work life was priorities. Some things are just plainly more important than others. Over the past two weeks I have had to prioritize. Last week for example I know my blog had to take a backseat. I love to blog and I feel it is an important aspect of my life, but last week there were things of more importance that took priority. This week is pretty much the same.

I value healthy margin, and just sometimes you need to take a break from somethings in order to create margin. On Wednesday and Friday I’ll be blogging about how that margin is so important in everyone of us. Even Jesus created margin, he realized prayer was a priority and even though healing the masses was important it wasn’t as important as prayer. He often fled the masses to create margin between his public life and prayer life.

I’m learning the margin lesson, I hope this weeks insight will help you.


The Flying Clock

I remember as a child always hearing adults talk about how much time flies the older you get.

 I use to dream of the days the clock would speed up. The days at school would seem like an eternity. The shopping trips with my mother would take the best years of my life and Sunday school would seem like one hour stretched over five.

 These days things are a little different. The days really do speed up. Not because the clock is any faster, but I now realize that as a child life was simple and easy. As an adult they are complicated, busy and far from easy.

 I looked at my schedule this past week, for the next couple of months I realized I’m slammed! Now I like a busy schedule, it keeps me active and focused. However, I know I get stressed most when I have no room to breath. Last week was once of those times. I started stressing because time was going to fast and I had missed personal deadlines I had set myself. I also got frustrated over something that I kept hitting a dead end.

 It was at this point I heard one of those some gentle voices that can only be crazy voices in my head, or God. I elected for God! The voice said, ‘why are you stressing, enjoy the ride. This life is a journey of discovery, enjoy discovering’. Well all I can say is I was reminded that life is to be enjoyed and so often we can take that enjoyment away by our own agenda.

 So instead of wishing that the clock would speed up, or that the calendar would slow down, I’m trying to enjoy life one minute at a time. Not matter how rough or smooth it may be, it is a privilege to have life, and I believe it was a man named Jesus who once said that he has come that we may have life and this life to the full. We can never have a full life unless we enjoy the journey we are all taking.

 Look around you today and enjoy all life has to truly offer.


Quality instead of Quantity

When was the last time you spent quality time with the ones you love?

When I mean quality time I do not mean just an afternoon or a few hours, I mean an extended amount of time just fully focused on those loved ones?

This weekend my wife and I devoted our weekend to quality time with each other. We spent the whole weekend together totally unaffected by outside influences. Many times we can say we spend quality time, but other things such as TV, Phones, agendas and schedules can stop the time being quality.

On Saturday we got up, went to the beach (our phones had no signal!), ate dinner together that evening and spent four hours in the car, just us talking. Then Sunday we got up, went to church then just had fun walking around some stores before finishing the weekend watching a movie together,

Doesn’t sound like much, but it really was quality time. You see we weren’t pre-occupied by our schedule. We weren’t constrained by time, we didn’t have to rush to get anywhere and we didn’t have other things getting in our way.

Sometimes you need weekends like this. Your loved ones need your undivided attention. They don’t need a couple of hours of your time; they need to know from time to time that they are the most important thing for them. They aren’t an appointment in your schedule and they aren’t competing for your attention from other influences. Whether it is your kids, your spouse, your friends or your family, sometimes all they need is just you and only you!

So really ask yourself, when was the last time I spent quality time with my loved ones? For some of you it has been a long time! If so, rip up that schedule and just do it! Your loved ones need YOU more than your schedule.


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