I can measure my week two ways:How much did I check off my todo list?
How much did I do to impact the kingdom of God?
Because very rarely do those two overlap.
The whole world and my own mind are screaming at me that the only valuable ways to spend my time are to work hard making money and then spend that money on improving my life. If I’m not actively producing something measurable, then was my time worth anything?
But God has a whole different way of measuring value.
How do you measure the value of spending time studying God’s Word and praying? How do you measure the value of sitting across a coffee shop table and pouring love and encouragement and time and friendship into another woman’s life? How do you measure the value of texting a friend encouragement or helping a friend who’s overwhelmed with life?
Because you can’t measure the impact of those things. And since they are impossible to measure, I often wonder if any of those things are making a difference.
Some weeks come to an end and the floors have gone another week without mopping and there were dirty dishes in the sink more often than not and the basil plant is just barely hanging on to life and every important email got sent at just the last possible second…and I feel like a failure.
But then I look at my week another way. I got to spend time with sweet friends, encouraging them over iced tea or coffee. And I had a few long phone conversations with family back home just listening to their hearts and learning how to pray for them. And I spent more time listening than talking and more time studying God’s Word than writing on my blog and more time doing my volunteer work for the church than house cleaning.
And there’s different kinds of value.
And keeping my home is oh-so important, but sometimes there are more important, more valuable, things to do.
And making money is important, but most of the time it’s more important to make just enough money and spend the rest of my time loving people.
And ministering to others is important, but from my mommy friends I know that it’s more important to minister to your children first and best.
So when everything in and around me is screaming that I’m wasting my life…
When everything in and around you is shouting that you’re not producing anything of value…
Let’s choose to look at things from God’s perspective.
Let’s keep choosing to say no to good things to say yes to best things.
And before this week even begins, let’s decide that we will fight to choose and to value the things God values over the things the world values.
Be blessed
<3
