Our family needs a lot of margin. Like margin on a page of a book~ we need blank space in our lives.
Have you ever purchased a book with little to no margin? I have. It was an old reprint that was taken from the original with no editing to its format. I never realized before how important margin could be. It was impossible for me to enjoy reading the book~ even though I am sure the content was wonderful. It was just too stressful.
So it is in life.
We only seem to enjoy the "good stuff" in the middle when we have margin space.
It means that I have to say "no" to certain things. I don't always have the opportunity to visit as much as I would otherwise. But this is such a special season of time with my little ones and in all honesty I don't want to miss it.
Because our family doesn't run well without margin, when things get busy I work at planning margin into our schedule.
HOW I KNOW WHEN I NEED MORE MARGIN:
#1 When I am feeling overwhelmed
#2 When I am neglecting some training area with my children
#3 When I am not connecting with my children
#4 When I don't have the time to do the things I know I need to do~ read the Word, exercise, laundry etc.
#5 When I don't see my children acting in love towards one another
That is when I STOP. I hit the brakes and re-prioritize. Are you there right now? I am. I am feeling a bit overwhelmed and wanting time to look into the sweet faces of my children.
There are so many good things in life, but not all things are helpful for us in this season. There are only so many things that God and our husbands actually call us to.
I think of 1 Corinthians 6:12: "All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything."
We have the liberty to do many things. And we will be given the opportunity to do many good things. But not all of those good things will be profitable for our family at the time in which they are offered.
You may be able to run on less margin than I can. That's great. But if you need to schedule more margin into your days and weeks I would encourage you to do so.
We only have one chance to lead these little hearts home.
~Rebecca
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Quote: "Are you there right now?" My short answer "YES!" This is certainly a word in season for me. I have felt very overwhelmed lately and I know I need to step back and re-prioritize my life. In turn, that will help me reschedule our days and get "back on track". I love the analogy of a margin. Thank-you!
ReplyDelete~Amanda
Grace go with you!
Thanks so much for the reminder in this post. I've been feeling all 5 of those things lately. note to self: schedule margin!! =)
ReplyDeleteMargin! What a great way to describe it. I'm very visual so this post is such a wonderful way for me to picture how to get myself together. Without a margin life could get marginal.... Blessings to you and yours!
ReplyDeleteSage counsel.
ReplyDeleteHi Rebecca,
ReplyDeleteMy name is also Rebecca and I have four kids. The oldest will be six in the Fall. I've been visiting here during the last few weeks and I have enjoyed your thougths on guarding our hearts. Oh and your sweet pictures, too! I think I linked over from either Kendra or Stacy(With Great Joy), I'm not sure which.
This morning it occured to me that maybe we need to kind of go on a "fast" from leaving the house for extra activities. I could say yes to many of your questions regarding the need for better margins in our life! There was a time when we really stayed home and had our little routine, worked on training and enjoyed each other and I think we need to return to that! Thanks for the encouragement and the reminder of the importance of setting good margins for our families!
Boy...you must know me! :-) Seriously, I feel like my life is right up against the page sometimes. The margin sounds really good right now.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this post.
Lots of love,
Sommer
Hello ladies~ and welcome to those of you that are posting for the first time. What an encouragement to have you here.
ReplyDeleteWonderful Amanda. I don't know about you, but summer when we are "off schedule" seems to be the time everything gets off track.
Hi Tamra! You know, sometimes it really does help to put space on the calendar and just know you are "booked." Your girls are adorable BTW.
Hi Kristi! Welcome! So glad you have a visual picture. That's right!
Hi Cheryl~ I know you are relating to me here. : )
Hi Rebecca! Welcome! Great to have you here. : ) How neat that you were already feeling this might be just the thing. May God richly bless you in your efforts!
Hi Sommer! Always love to see you here. You're so sweet.
Blessings to each of you!
~Rebecca
I feel like I never know quite what to say after reading each of your posts, because they almost always hit a part of my heart that needs working on. You have such a wise, yet gentle way of teaching. Instead of feeling bad about my short comings in my life, you inspire me to want to fix them and become better.
ReplyDeleteI can relate to having too little margin in our lives at times. I try to keep our "out of house" time to a minimum during the week, so we don't get spread too thin. Some weeks are better than others.
Thank you for the reminders. I think I am going to type up your list of "signs that my margin is too full" and put it on my fridge.
Sweet Serena. I am so blessed you are here and that God is using these things in your life.
ReplyDeleteGod is reminding me of all these things too. It is so easy to start out well, but much harder to finish well. We need God's strength to go the distance.
Love to you!
~Rebecca