Maximum Overload!

I am so busy....sometimes I am not sure if I am coming or going.
Monday nights I guard. Monday nights are for those Emmaus meetings and Worship committee meetings that spring up. Most Monday's I am free. But what exactly does that mean?
Tuesday nights I teach two classes at a local college. I run home from school, fix supper for my parents and husband, rush to class before 5. I get home by 8 and then I clean up any mess left in the kitchen and get my stuff ready for Weds. It is a hectic day. Usually I drop into bed exhausted!
Wednesday nights I have Praise Band practice. I once again rush home, fix supper, eat, and hurry to practice. Some nights we are lucky and get out early....at least by 8. Other nights it is more like 9 when I once again drag my tired body home, shower, and go to bed.
Thursday nights I am on Tuesday night's schedule. Frank bowls on Thursday nights so he does not get home until 9. I am almost comatose by the time he gets in.
Friday nights fluctuate depending on the season of the year. During the fall, I sell football tickets at the gate for our local high school team. The rest of the year this night is reserved for whatever I am not nailed with during the week.
Saturdays are my special days with my husband. We both lead such hectic lives during the week that on Saturdays we find time together. I look forward to these date days.
Sundays are hectice. I go to FUMC and praise band warm up by 7:45, the service at the Arbor is at 9, at 10 I bust the doors to get to my car and head to Waverly for church. I am a preacher's wife and want to support my husband in this endeavor.
So now let me ask you does this schedule look familiar? If you closed your eyes would you be looking at your own schedule? One of the biggest traps Satan has for us is that of a daily, very hectic schedule. It is easy to get caught up in way too many activities. Every year during Lent I decide to fix the clutter in my life and look at the activities I do, and ask myself just WHY do I do them. While outside activities aren't bad, I have to make sure that they don't take away from what is really important, spending time with God. Have I forgotten that somewhere along the way? Sometimes I feel so much pressure to be involved in so many activities because "everyone else is doing it." But then I stop and remind myself that I don't have to do things because everyone else is doing it. Romans 12:2 tells me not to conform after the pattern of the world. In fact, I am to be conformed to the likeness of Christ. (Rom. 8:29, II Cor. 3:18) Well, I ask myself....if I am so busy running here and there, how can I be conformed to His likeness? Ok...so seeing that I am so busy running in too many directions at one time I must ask myself...just what kind of influences am I letting in? Are they good ones or bad ones? Romans 16:19 says to be wise about what is good and innocent about what is evil. If I hang around many ungodly influences, it is hard to maintain that innocence about what is evil. If I am being exposed to so many ungodly things, I am not protecting myself as I should be.I am opening the door to Satan and telling him to come on in!
It is through my quiet time that I have come to realize that Satan, the enemy, is using all my busy activities to distract me from what is really important? All of my "busyness" is one of his many schemes to destroy me and my walk with God. All the "stuff" I HAVE to do is just a scheme to take away my intimate family time with my husband, to destroy my devotional time, to destroy my time to relax, unwind and heal myself.
Before my parents moved in with Frank and I family meal time at the table was unheard of. Oh we ate together....in the same room....in front of a TV set....but there was no converstation, unless it was about the show we were watching. It is true that family devotions have become a thing of the past in many homes, Frank's call to the ministry has changed that for us. See, God is protecting me....even when I did not know I needed help! Rom. 12:1says to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, yet I am so busy sometimes that I feel like the "walking dead" because I am so tired.
In Titus 2:4-5 I find young women being encouraged to love their husbands, to love their children, to be self-controlled, chaste, good managers of our homes, to be kind, to be submissive to our husbands, so that the Word of God many not be discredited. Personally I cannot be a Titus 2:4-5 woman with my current level of activity? If I do not change my ways this "busyness" will rob me of those things which really are important. Time with God, Time with family, Time for self. Once I lay the busyness down....I will truly experience JOY.

Humbly His Servant,

Karen