At The Well- A God Honoring Schedule

Sunny from A Damsel No Longer in Distress is hosting our topic at the well today: Preparing a God-honoring Schedule with No Regrets. Here are her questions to ponder:
1. Have you ever planned your day, week or month, then regretted making the commitments you’ve made, wondering if your plan was the right one?
2. Have you ever wondered if you should’ve said “yes” to one person and “no” to another and just weren’t sure what the best thing to do was?
3. Who or what does your schedule represent? Does it represent you, your affinities, or your love for Christ?

I'm going to do a little then and now. First let me start off by saying that I believe that serving in church ministry is wonderful but I am going to say something about the timing of it.
Back when my husband and I only had one child we both were VERY involved in church ministry. My daughter went to public school and did sports and in the world's eyes we were doing all the right things. BUT, joy started leaving, struggles started coming, conflict within our family started looming over us. What was going on? I had the perfect schedule. My day was full of activity. When the day ended we sat down and had dinner as a family and spent our "quality" time together and would go to bed. My next child appeared on the scene but that wasn't going to slow me down. I can still do this........ Why am I tired and frustrated? My kids are driving me crazy. Don't they know I need to memorize my lines for the skit? Homeschool? No way! I don't have time for that. Then WHAM! Neon sign from the Lord. I can't go into detail what that sign was but let's just say it was so obvious a blind man could have seen it! Are you sure Lord?
Fast forward to today. I have 3 children and I homeschool them all. I spend just about every waking moment at home and I LOVE it. I'm not rushed to do anything. I cut out all volunteering of any kind. I do miss it at times but realize that this season in my life is meant for taking care of my children and being there for my husband and taking care of my home. My schedule is very relaxed and doesn't vary to much from day to day. I have a neighbor who I know looks at me and thinks I'm crazy and swears she could never do that. But yet I see her run her 3 year old around from play date to play date and activity to activity and she, my friend, looks so tired and worn down. My kids are very happy to be at home. If we do things we do them all together as a family. Our schedules now permits that to happen. My husband leaves for a job every day but when he's home he's home.
With that said, I know that God gives us all talents and gifts and if they are only used to serve your family then they are not wasted.I do believe that in a different season I will probably once again serve with great gusto in regards to ministry outside the home, without neglecting what's going on inside the home. BUT it will be the Lord's guiding and instructing for just the right time to do it. For now those talents and gifts that the Lord has blessed me with get poured into my children and my husband. Whether they like it or not and for how ever long the Lord wants. It could be forever.
I do have regrets about past decisions that I've made and I know they weren't all centered around the Lord and I wasn't seeking Him in my efforts but ever since the Neon sign I know for a fact I am where He wants me to be and doing exactly what He wants me to be doing. I don't get the worldly recognition or outside applause but when I lay my head down at night I have peace knowing that my Savior is in heaven with a smile on His face and one day I hope to hear Him say, " Well done good and faithful servant."
My advice? Don't wait for the Neon sign. I had known for quite sometime that something needed to change but kept putting it off and putting it off. Well it didn't pay off doing that, I'll tell you right now. If God has laid on your heart a change, then I advise you do it. Don't wait! Don't procrastinate! Prayerfully seek Him in your daily decisions because He truly does care about every detail of our lives. Remember my schedule isn't going to look like your schedule. The Lord has specific details laid out for each and every person. Everyone is at a different season in their life. I'm just saying seek Him first before you commit to anything.
I'm going to leave you with only one verse today because this one verse speaks volumes about what I said today.

Ecclesiastes 3:11

There is a time for everything,

and a season for every activity under heaven:

Blessings my friends.