I’ve heard people say, “There’s enough time to do all the things you want to do in life, you just have to be disciplined with your time and use it correctly. We all get 24 hours.”
Baloney.
I believe there is not enough time to do everything you want to do, unless there is hardly anything you want to do. While simplicity is a good strategy, it still doesn’t make enough time.
Consider just the top priorities in your life — the things we all think we should do every day.
It would spend your entire day just to:
- Have a deep, unhurried time of devotion, prayer and personal worship with the Lord.
- Cultivate your spouse at a heart level (not to mention sex).
- Engage with your young kids in child-directed play.
- Enter the world of your teenager and drawing them out in conversation.
- Keep your body healthy — stretching, exercising vigorously, and preparing highly nutritious meals.
- Read and learn something new.
Then you add doing meaningful work, engaging in relationships with non-Christians, “doing life together” with Christians, helping your kids develop skills through sports or the arts, getting involved in the cultural, political or social life of your city, keeping up with old friends, developing new hobbies, unwinding and resting…it’s tiring just to type.
There isn’t enough time. Some things will just not get done.
Choosing what to spend your time on — and what not to spend it on — makes all the difference in the world.
And the choices are never easy.
Would you be up for doing a follow-up post on how you decide which important things to do at a given time and which to let go undone?
Yeah, what Kristie asked! Once I’m done just doing the chores required for running my home, I’m ready for bed!
I have some thoughts on that…Not sure if they’re right, but I’ll post some of them. Hopefully in the not too distant future.
I ditto Kristie as well. I think God can lead different people to have different priorities underneath God, spouse, kids, but reading your thoughts and how God has led you could be helpful. It’s refreshing to see someone be honest that there just isn’t enough time for everything. I have heard so many times that there is enough time for everything that’s important and that just piles on the guilt and feels so discouraging. Thank you for this post!
Here’s the follow up post: http://www.faithfulandfruitful.com/choosing-how-to-use-your-time/
Who are these people who have long, ambitious lists and are able to accomplish them all?
Not to sound pretentious, but the only people I know who repeatedly accomplish everything they want have significantly shorter lists than I do.