What's Important?

As a child, it seemed as if I had endless time to do the things I wanted. As adulthood crept upon me that time seemed to vanish as I filled my life with important activities. After going a million miles a minute, doing mostly good things, I stopped long enough to reflect on my progress and realized that in my haste and busyness, I had often let the important things in life slip--prayer, reflection, solitude, quality time with God and with key people.

Somehow I had forgotten how or what it meant to "be still and know that [He] is God." Dr. Richard Swenson, an author who has  spoken directly to me with his writings on restoring balance to overloaded lives, discusses a number of remedies to creating margin (a space between the load we carry and our limits) in our lives. Sometimes they are simple in theory, but incredibly hard and counter-cultural in practice. For example, he suggests:

1. learn to accept our limits (physical, spiritual, emotional) and therefore say "no" when we are asked to do something beyond our limits
2. learn to control and be disciplined with time sucking technology (email, internet, facebook, xbox, to name a few)
3. be content (we don't need lots and lots of stuff) 
4. get out of debt (it can control you life and force you to live in a place of stress)
5. learn to set boundaries--Swenson describes a boundary as a "perimeter erected around your private life that the world cannot come crashing through." As an example of a boundary for his family, he explained that they do not answer the phone during family mealtimes
6. take Jesus' advice--don't worry about what you will eat, drink, wear. God will provide (Swenson is not advocating laziness, but contentment. Be content with what we have, or at least a more simple life that does not demand we buy a whole new wardrobe with every season)
7. before doing anything of significance, seek peace and clarity. Because God is a God of peace and clarity, not confusion and chaos

Coming to England was the gift our family needed. Away from all of the busyness, the technology, the social commitments, and the culture that demands more of everything faster and faster, we have the gift of stepping outside our normal life and reflecting upon it. Asking ourselves important questions like: what is important to us as a family as individuals? What do we value and are we living a life that manifests those values? What does God desire for our lives?  On what should we focus our energies and our time?

Traveling is not only an adventure in discovering other cultures and how to survive in another country, but also a place of reflection--looking back on where we have been, enjoying where we are, and looking forward to where we will go.


Signing out...
Charity


Visit this link to read a bit more of Swenson's wise advice for a balanced life
http://www.richardswenson.org/mom_excerpt.html