Planning- not always the best idea...

Lately I have been posting a lot about frugal living and a few things you can do to accomplish that, but today I want to take a break from that and speak on something that God has laid on my heart this week.

A couple weeks ago my husband and I had the opportunity to go to our state's homeschool convention through Home Educators of Virginia, since we will be homeschooling two out of our four children next year. Well at this convention they had what they called keynote sessions at the beginning and ending of every day. On one particular day they had a man by the name of Dr. Richard Swenson speak about leaving margins in your life, to allow time for things to happen, or for you to be able to bless others. Pretty much it just came down to the fact of not planning your whole entire day out minute to minute because then there would be no time for you to, for example, stop and help that elderly woman with her groceries at the store, or serve in your church when they needed, or even stop for a second and play that game your child has begged you so sweetly to play with them.

Well this speech really hit home with me, you know why? Because I am a PLANNER. I put that in capitalization because I cant seem to function without a daily schedule, home management guide (that I created myself to keep track of everything going on in the home), checklists for EVERYTHING, so when he mentioned not to plan out every single second or minute, I have to admit, I was like what, are you crazy! Then how will I get my checklist accomplished and keep everything running smoothly.

So I left the convention thinking on that a lot but I never really put it into action at all. I got back home and went straight back to my daily planner in my management guide and starting planning every second of our week again!

Well this past weekend I started noticing that in me doing that, planning everything out, I wasn't really feeling like I was fulfilled or even getting anything accomplished. Even though everything on my checklist was being checked off. And I was becoming overwhelmed each and every day because I had the checklist going through my head constantly. Saying to myself okay Alyssa now what is next on the list even while I was still working on that last item.

Another thing that was brought to my attention this past weekend is that also in me doing this, I haven't been able to be a blessing towards others in the way I would like. I will see something that I want, or could do for another but then I say to myself you dont have time for that Alyssa, you have this, this and this to do first! So I am not here on this earth doing what God called me to do, which is to be a light (blessing) towards others.

And then one last example of God convicting me, is this morning in reading my devotional "Jesus Calling" it said many great things but one great sentence that hit me and made me say to God ok God I get it was this "Do not wear yourself out with analyzing and planning."

So I am not saying this to say do not plan at all, because we do need to make sure we make the best use of our time and to do this we need to plan, we even need those daily planners and schedules. BUT I am saying that maybe when we are planning out our time during the day maybe we should leave an hour or two here and there and just leave them blank, so when things come up we wont loose our focus on what we are really here for and we can help that elderly person or we can plan that game with our child. Even if you can only leave 15min at a time during your day blank, do it and just see how God uses you during that tme that you had planned nothing. I know I will, will you try with me?

How do leave margin in your life? Or how are you going to start?

Psalm 13:5- "But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation"