I'm
human. I'm not a machine. There are those folks that would make Henry
Ford proud – 'drive myself till I drop'. But God made us in His
image and with flesh, blood, bone, and brain that man can't come
close to duplicating, with technology, or even explanation.
Further,
David, the Psalm writer, in 139 verse 14, adds to many scriptures
that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made”. But our amazing
bodies are still only temporary; they aren't designed to last for
eternity, or even be abused, by self-mutilation or subjected to
stampede-mode daily agendas.
Our
bodies require adequate deep rest overnight and 'time-outs' throughout
each day. In case you haven't figured it out, God is fully capable of
maintaining the planet, and even your own little world, so long as
you let Him do what He's best at. You'll likely be embarrassed to see
the things you worry about getting done, day after day, that won't
destroy the earth if you don't get them done. Those time-outs even
accomplish great things (in your agenda) as you pause often, at the
keyboard and take a trip or two around your chair, and finish with
shaking loose those stiff muscles.
Focusing
on the beginning of our daily agenda, we most often 'starve the
horse'. We jump into our task list without eating any breakfast, let
alone a nourishing breakfast. It's no wonder our body starts running
down well before lunch. Our energy and creativity take a kamikaze
nose dive. Make that breakfast time a crucial fuel-up for launch.
Ask yourself how close to orbit your body rocket would get, with
cool-aid in the booster tanks. The big secret is that you'll get MUCH
MORE quality work done before lunch WITH a good breakfast than
blasting right past it.
So
feeding the BODY, first thing is very necessary, every day.
Feeding
the MIND in the morning is just as important and fruitful as
breakfast. Take time to read some scripture. Make God's word your
launch pad for the day. Write a verse on a small piece of paper and
make it your link to 'mission control'. Tape the verse to your rear
view mirror for those stressful gridlock moments in traffic. Put the
verse in your toolbox or include it on your screen saver. See how the
verse enhances quality and order to all your daily tasks. Share the
verse at the supper table. Careful though. You may find yourself
memorizing that verse to keep in your spiritual toolbox.
Feed
your HEART at breakfast time, for feeling God working through you and
your day's agenda. Prayer is that heart-feeding that can continue all
through the day, and night too. Prayer and praise are the most
powerful of communication tools, yet aren't limited by battery life,
buttons, or range.
Prayer
has its own order that produces real lasting joy in that person
praying.
The
ACTS of Prayer have been a blessing to me, over and over. Each letter
of ACTS gives us the sequence; the order of our prayer, as follows:
A
= Adoration
God
wants us to begin our time with Him, praising Him for who and what He
is, in all that we know about Him. He cherishes hearing our, “I
love you”, to Him, just like we want to hear it from others.
C
= Confession
Because
God is omniscient (all knowing) we don't need to 'let Him in on
anything'; especially those things we've done, we know He doesn't
like. The Bible calls those things, SINS. The purpose of this part of
prayer, is that WE hear ourselves speak the same opinions about those
things that God does. We align our thinking and principles to His, as
stated in scripture.
T
= Thankfulness
Before
we rush to tell God what we need or want, we must keep our priorities
in prayer straight by thanking Him for all His goodness to us
already. The Bible often groups God's goodness to us in two major
categories; Mercy and Grace. People often think of them as being the
same, but they are quite different. MERCY is God's goodness to us in
not laying upon us all the punishment WE DESERVE, because of our
self-centeredness and not following His plan for each day of our
lives. GRACE is quite different as the other category of God's
goodness to us. Grace are those things God gives us that WE DON'T
DESERVE. They are gifts that couldn't possibly be put in a package
with a bow on it. MERCY = Not getting what WE DO deserve and GRACE =
That which God gives us WE DON'T deserve.
S
= Supplication
This
is the act of ASKING God for those things we need. With the same
attitude we ask our parents for things we can use to bring honor to
them, not just 'toys' to please ourselves. Our prayerful spirit must
recognize that God has His schedule and order of things, that may not
match up to our schedule. His answers can be “OK”, “NO”, or
“NOT NOW”.
As
we move through each day's agenda of our lives, we must be
continually aware that our relationship with God must be maintained
by HIS STANDARDS. We can't possibly expect to come to Him with our
petitions when we cast Him aside all the rest of the day.
All
the above precludes any recommendations of the many on-line programs and
procedures in the genre of Time Management for the individual.
