Want to get together with people more, but just can’t manage the time?  When planning your calendar, think of maybe 2 people/families you’d like to see this month.  After putting on only the inflexible meetings and appointments, plan with those people a date!  Then fill in the rest of your month.  Now it’s scheduled, and you are not waiting to “find” time.  You just prioritized relationships without giving something up!

Can’t ever make the time to pray and read your bible?  Start with one verse and pray for 5 minutes.  You can fit it in almost anywhere.  On a lunch break.  I often do it in the shower (obviously only the praying part, I don’t read my Bible in the shower.)  I used to do it on my commute when I drove a ways to work.  Build as you find that manageable.

Want to work out but can’t even manage 30 minutes every couple of days?  So do 5 minutes every couple of days.  It’s sooo much more than nothing.  When you find it really isn’t taking anything from your schedule, increase it to 7 minutes, or 10 if you can.  Keep building!  If you’ve done more today than yesterday, you are succeeding!  Even if it’s one push-up.

Want to eat healthy, but just don’t know where to start or how to change foods, or fearful you (and your family) will hate it?  Start slow.  Buy whole wheat bread instead of white and call that good for now.  In a month, do something else easy, like lower fat milk.  Only go down to the next lower percentage, don’t jump to skim.  Train your palate, don’t shock it.  Each baby step is an improvement, right?

Need to make healthier meals but just don’t have the time?  Plan ahead!  Plan your meals on the weekend for the whole week.  Buy all the ingredients, and know ahead of the day what you will make.  Thaw out your meat accordingly, and when you get home, you won’t be so tired you’ll just throw a pizza in the oven, because the meat is already thawed, the ingredients are there, and you knew this was coming, so you are mentally prepared to cook for 30 minutes instead of finding something quick.

Does it really take that much more time and effort to give my kids raw vegetables (which they love) than to pull out some cookies?  First step is to buy them!  Then just try to remember and cut them up when the kids want a snack.  I often buy them, and don’t get around to preparing them.  It takes about 3 more minutes to make ants on a log than it does to hand them cookies.  Why don’t I do it more?

There is so much we can do if we keep our perspective on the moment and don’t look at the big picture of the end.  Start small, and be intentional about things!

I’d love to hear your ideas about what you do to make things more manageable, or things that you just haven’t fit in your busy life yet.

A couple of years ago, I made that my goal.  To be more intentional with my time, relationships, money, etc.  I obviously don’t succeed in everything I do or do it perfectly.  I need much more intention applied in a lot of areas.  But I feel a lot better about what I do put into things.  I make progress I can be proud of.

What am I talking about?  Little things.  Like am I intentional about what tv I watch?  Are the shows I watch teaching me anything?  Of course not all my entertainment is educational.  There is plenty of mindless relaxing.  But is it harmful?  Am I watching something that is degrading to anybody or anything, or filling my mind with harmful ideas or even just nonsense?  For example, I LOVE the “Cosby show”.  You see examples of good parenting, bad parenting, how families respond to each other, and even recent history.  Of course it’s scripted acting, and it’s not real or even realistic sometimes.  But it’s not harmful entertainment.  I also love the “Big Bang Theory” tv show.  No, it doesn’t teach me anything aside from obscure scientific facts that I probably won’t need to know.  But I do find it entertaining.  It does not expose me to inappropriate ideas (mostly).  My main point, is the other day, my husband and I were watching a new movie.  It has a couple big name actors, and I was looking forward to it.  It turned out to be coarsely vulgar, in language and content.  Over the edge for me.  Did I finish the movie?  No, I got up and left the room, and later than I probably should have.  Is it a bad movie to some people?  No.  But it was too much for me.  Luke 11:34 says, “³⁴ Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are healthy,your whole body also is full of light. But when they are unhealthy, your body also is full of darkness. ³⁵ See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness.”  My thoughts were not light during that movie.  So I need to choose intentionally what I expose myself to.

I also like to be intentional about what I read.  I’m reading a few different parenting books right now.  I also enjoy a really good novel, although it’s been awhile since I read one.  But if I’m reading, there are other things I’m not getting done, and people I’m not spending time with.  So when I read, I want it to be something that’s worth it.  A book that’s teaching me something or challenging me, or some really good entertainment, that is not filling my mind with inappropriate thoughts.  I also do the same for my daughter, who is 7 and likes to read.  I stopped buying her all the silly fairy books where they fix all their problems with pixie dust.  Will these books harm her?  Of course not, but if she’s reading something else she loves that’s more educational while still entertaining, she gains much more.

Something critical to being intentional, is realizing every time you choose something, or somebody, you are not choosing something or somebody else.  If I choose to Facebook for an hour, then I choose not to play with my child who is at my knee wanting my attention.  Did I deliberately ignore them and make a firm choice about spending an hour on the computer?  No, but the result is the same.  I’m not making a judgement about facebooking or how one should respond to a child, just making an example in my own life.  If I choose to stop and talk to a stranger in the store for 30 minutes about nothing, I may have been ignoring my over-hungry, over-tired kids in the cart.  Every choice is a choice to DO something, and to NOT do something else, whether it was deliberate or not.

Obviously we all need rest.  And we need to turn off our minds.  My husband enjoys playing pool.  I’m glad that after work and dinner, he can go shoot some pool and get his mind off things, and enjoy himself.  But does he shoot pool all day long?  Of course not!  He plays enough to relax, and then moves on.  But my main point is, our play has to be intentional, too.  If it does not do some sort of service to ourselves or someone else, why participate?  If it doesn’t serve someone else, or isn’t reenergizing or relaxing for you, why are you doing it?  Why watch a movie depicting scenes which are hurtful to someone else?  Why waste any time, when our time is so precious and fleeting?  Like I said, rest and breaks are also necessary and can be intentional.  I’m just saying to choose your “rest” method wisely, and to balance it with productivity.  And know your needs.  If you are in high stress situations, allow yourself more time to rest and build yourself up.

I encourage everybody to be more intentional in their actions.  After all, what is there to lose?

Those are some of the great lyrics of Darius Rucker from the song “This”. I am blessed, my family is blessed, and I am thankful to God. We’re back to Colorado now and have put a LOT of mileage between us and 4 years ago. To see my kids and my family healthy and happy is amazing. We faced some seriously difficult situations and are stronger than ever. What’s next? Who knows? That’s one of the things that keeps life fun.