Busyness?

Just a few thoughts here. This has been a busy month. An incredibly busy month, which followed another very busy month, to be precise.

Let's reflect on busyness. While many may say that "Cleanliness is next to Godliness", (which is not exactly scriptural, but that's another post) I have decided that "Busyness is next to......well.......insanity."

Let me begin by showing you my datebook.

My husband looked at this page, and asked me if I realized how absolutely insane it is. My response to him was. "Try living this life Bucky!"

In the past couple of months, I have realized how out of control my life is getting/has gotten. I have to slow down. Really I do. I go on about 4 hours of sleep a night during the week, and crash when the weekend comes. This is not good for my body or for my family. Weekends should be a time of relaxing and enjoying family activities, not spent crashed in my bed from burnout. It has gotten to the point that I can't remember how to relax anymore. We went to Jacksonville last week, for some required testing for my husband's job, and I was still in such an "on" mode that I couldn't even relax and enjoy the jacuzzi tub.

What is wrong with me?

I began reflecting on some teaching by Joyce Meyer late last month. I used to watch her program all the time! A lot of what she said is stuck in my head, but nothing more than her teaching on busyness. She said, (and although this is a paraphrase I will put it in quotations. This is just the gist of what she said, I could never quote her word for word, so this is what I got out of it.. You can read an article on this from her here.)

"God never called us to be busy, he called us to be fruitful!"
and....another wonderful Joyce-ism....
"God called us to be human BEings, not human DOings."

So am I busy or fruitful? If I am brutally honest with myself, some of what I do is bearing fruit. Some of it is necessary for the function of my home and family. Some of it is flitter and fluff.

The first weekend of this month I attended a Women's Conference in Tifton GA with my church. We were blessed to hear Darlene Bishop preach, and guess what she talked about? Yep. Being busy.  She said that sometimes we get so busy doing the Kingdom's business that we forget who we are in business for.

Wow.

So.....I am not committing to anything new right now. I am finishing up all of my commitments for the month, and I am earnestly seeking God about what I need to do in the upcoming season. I was to be fruitful. I want to be vital in the Kingdom . I want to be productive without being CRAZY!

Am I alone in this? I think not. Somehow it seems to me that as a woman, if I am not busy, then I am perceived as lazy. (Especially as a stay at home mom, which is a specific calling on my life, not just a choice) But in my mind, if I stay busy, then I appear to be valuable. My question to myself is this: Who am I living my life for?

My answer is this. God first. My husband second. My child third. And everything and everybody else falls into place.