Thursday, January 31, 2013

Another year

I LOVE holidays. Time off from the busyness of the daily routine. Sleeping in and not needing to be out of the house by a certain time. Time together as a family doing fun things. A chance to get away (Albany was sooo much cooler than Perth!) Time to read and pray and time to just do nothing!

Now they are almost finished. School goes back Monday over here and once that happens the quiet and peace of a January on leave will be shattered by the commencement of absolutely everything! Music lessons, Brigades, baseball, teeball, soccer registration, table tennis, archery, back on the Sunday school teaching roster, Youth Group not to mention the committees I am on and the planning for various activities taking place this year, oh and work! Getting together to check our diaries was a major reality check as we saw the year filling up rapidly and the number of times juggling would be necessary to manage everything on at any one time.

How did we get so busy? How can we ensure that our busyness does not swamp what is really important? I struggle with this. I know that my relationship with Jesus is so much more important than anything else and yet it is so easy for time to read His word and pray to be squashed out by the myriad of other things that seem urgent. The urgent so often trumps the important.

I am praying that as the busyness begins I don't forget the things I have learned during the holidays. Time to be with people is worth creating. Our activities at church are there for a reason - they are there to help us know Jesus better and to trust Him more fully.


1Cor. 13:1-3   
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. 

Heavenly Father, Help me to love those around me. Help me to remember, each day, to slow down enough to see how best to put that love into action.