Treasures out of the Darkness

I am really fighting this month against an adversary who has many faces. Beautiful and alluring faces. What temptation or vice am I struggling with, you ask?  Busyness. Over commitment. I don’t know, it just seems that all of a sudden, I am being allured by all of these great opportunities to do wonderful things. Things that I would be great at, things that would be good for me, things that could be very good ministry opportunities…yet, it just seems they would pull me in too many directions to be really useful at any of them.   I read somewhere recently that with all of our technological advances that were supposed to decrease our work load, we have somehow added another days worth of work. Did you catch that? We somehow have an eight day work week now. We are SO busy.  We are getting up early and due to electricity, we are able to stay up into the wee hours to finish work that our ancestors would have waited until the next day to complete. I am getting WAY off point there…just a little soapbox rant! J

I have been thinking about my life’s mission statement a lot this week.  I have been wondering, if God is changing my mission statement to include something more, or if I am just trying to fill my life with something other than what He has called me to do. This led me to think about reasons we do “too much”.
There are times when life just demands more of us.  Jobs for instance can take a lot of our time and attention. We may have bosses who require more from us for a while. It’s called work for a reason. I get that.  I don’t have a regular job though. I am a stay at home mom. I do the normal housekeeping stuff, bills, homework etc. I also work in ministry with my husband, who is a full time youth minister. We are busy. Very Very busy! The demands of a job in ministry can be overwhelming because the lines are easily blurred between work, home and family. Boundaries have become a life saver for my family. But boundaries can also make you the bad guys at times!

For me, it all comes down to what I find my worth in. If my  worth comes from what I do, then by all means I should do as much as I can as well as I can…right? HOWEVER, my worth comes not from what I do, but whose I am. I am the daughter of the King of Kings. I have worth because He created me in His image, put HIS breath in my frame…and if that’s not enough, He also loved me and valued me enough  to DIE to cover my  frailty. He knew that I was at my very best, nothing more than dust without Him. So I have value because the price on my head was the death of the son of God.

There are so many good things out there for me to do but just because the need is there, does not mean that I am the one called to that task. So, once again I need to simplify my schedule. It’s time to decide where I am supposed to be and stop trying to do it all! This is such an easy thing to say, but not so easy to do. I am praying for wisdom, clarity and direction. I have to remind myself that if I am not connected to my source, I will burn out.  I am like a lamp, if I am unplugged, I have no light of my own to share. I must be plugged in to the source of my light. It is Christ in me.

I know i rambled a lot tonight, I am tired, I am overwhelmed and just wanted to put some of my thoughts down while I was able. If you think about me this week, please pray for me. Wisdom, clarity and strength to get through the rest of this week!  Thanks!