[DECLUTTER] What’s all that junk on your calendar?
Takes one to know one. I am convinced that my over-scheduled, do-it-all years were the catalyst to my worst health crises. And here I am enjoying God’s healing and what do I go and do?? I over-booked myself! That lesson-learned was so intense that I’m almost shocked I’m human enough to over-book it again! Bahhhh!!
Today, I bring you some tools that will help you ask God about your calendar. (*Sidenote: If you feel like you want to run and hide from that conversation with God, then it’s a tell-tale sign you NEEEEEED to have that conversation with God. He is for you, not against you. You can trust Him. Capiche?)
So while you print off the White Space Weekly Routines Planner, listen to this 5-minute pep-talk on how to use the planner, how to filter your decisions, and how to make some room for the work of the Holy Spirit.
- Print the White Space Weekly planner (It can be found in your Welcome email for new subscribers).
- Listen to the 5-minute Planner Pep-talk. It cut off the last half of the verse… so it’ll be a pop-quiz. Can you finish the verse? And if not, it can be found on your printable! : )
3. Have fun seeking God on your callings and priorities.
4. Fill in every place you have committed to or are thinking of committing to. If some of your activities are only once or twice a month, include them all as if they all coincide on this same week. We can sometimes deceive ourselves with “oh, it’s only once a month!” But then it all adds up.
Something Jimmy Evans taught me and my husband when we did the Vision Retreat is that EVERY decision you make with your time effects EVERYONE. It all adds up. So if you are married, make sure your spouse is part of the decisions you are making with your time.
As you seek the Lord, His answers just may surprise you like He surprised me. I’ve done this long enough to have learned that with hindsight, God’s plan was always best for me. Sometimes I obeyed and trusted. Sometimes I did what I thought was better or more dutiful… But I have always looked back and realized the things He asked me to do and not do were or would have been the very best. Sometimes, He asks me to do wonderful things and in a self-martyrdom kind of way, I turned them down. Don’t do that. If you really feel like He’s nudging you to take a dance class or a web-design class or a painting class, do it! And if He’s asking you to only do one thing, then don’t do more! Whatever way He leads you, trust Him. Don’t tell God that the way He’s leading you is too much, too little, too fun, too spiritual… Just trust Him. He knows the days to come and you and I just plain don’t.
I love you, bless you, and pray this helps you as much as it’s helped me. I use this tool about every semester. (I will always think by the academic year. So happy new year! It’s mid-August!) Every time I sense a shift in activities and commitments, I print this puppy off and work through where I’m going to spend my time.
My goal is not to fill my calendar. My goal is not to leave my calendar empty. My goal is to be faithful to do the work God has called me to and to leave room for the surprising works He has planned that can’t be penciled in ahead of time.
It’s so easy to get distracted in doing someone else’s work for them instead of doing my own!
Need more convincing? The Lord kept returning this message to my mind this week as I wrestled with my own White Space planner…. I kept hearing “glittery flaming arrows” over and over in my mind as I wavered on a recent decision:
Too Many Glittering Flaming Arrows by yours truly
Alright! Go get-em!