Where Is Your Time Going?

Church stopped being the center of community/family life….and the thing that has taken over? Sports and/or hobbies. Let’s face it, kids are in all kinds of sports, several teams even at one time in a family. We pastor and we hear it regularly: oh this kid has a tournament this week-end so we are driving x number of hours to spend the week-end at a tournament. And it’s not just one tournament a season….it’s almost every week-end….not even talking about the “traveling” teams. And all the while money is spent for teams, gas, uniforms, practices, hotels, tournament fees…..I’m like, “Are you serious? {And people wonder why they have no money?? Can you imagine the eternal consequences if that same time and energy was put into missions trips with your kids?}

From this post at A Place Called Simplicity.

Recently I've been praying a lot for my time to be used in a better way; that I will eliminate plenty of things that are taking up time that I could be better spending elsewhere. It amazes me at how often we come to an end of a day and we have absolutely no idea of what we spent the time on!

Like many people, I find that having too much on makes it easy to put God on a back-burner. Likewise having too much stuff (belongings). Here are some of the changes I've been making recently to help myself in these areas.

Too much on:
- No TV, and limit DVD buying. If you have to pay for it, you'll usually be more sensible about what you watch. Yes, I still buy things that are far from ideal. But I'm never going to buy the DVD series of The Biggest Loser - but if I had a TV, I'd probably end up watching it.

- Say no to things. Most of the time, you don't have to do it. Get out of what you can, even 'fun' stuff (especially 'fun' stuff) because most of the time you'll just waste your time.

- Make a goal list. Even when you don't accomplish as much as you would like, you will find that you are more focused if you have a goal list.

In regards to belongings

- Get rid of anything that is a weak point for you
- Go through your things on a regular basis

Remember that it is all going to be burnt up anyway!