Guardian of the Family Schedule

Typical day-to-day work, after school activities, evening activities, classes, social get togethers, friends over, lessons, conferences, shopping, traveling, summer programs, non-profit endeavors, political campaigns, summer camps....

We live a world of endless possibilities.  Morning, noon and night, weekdays, weekends, endless circles of people.  

It used to be that you lived in your little circle of the world.  Now you live in one circle but the rest of the world is 100% accessible.  It’s no longer a big deal to travel anywhere.  We used to travel infrequently.... once or twice a year would we actually take any kind of an extensive trip.  Today it can be much more than that.  It’s not uncommon to have extensive travel every 2 - 3 months in our lives.

When I was growing up kids would go to school until 3 in the afternoon and then come home for the rest of the afternoon and evening on most days.  The weekends consisted of chores and errands, church on Sunday and maybe a social gathering of some kind once or twice a month.

Not today.  Today things are radically different and exhausting.  Today we have our “9-5” worlds, and then our “5 - 9” worlds takes over and our weekend “party” starts when Friday afternoon hits and can extend until Sunday about dinner time when the reality of Monday morning hits our consciences.  It’s not uncommon for a whole week to have straight activity without any time when we are just “home”.  It’s not good.

We must be the “guardian” of our family’s schedule. Fiercely defend a healthy balance.  And don’t look for any healthy patterns to follow around you.  There probably aren’t any.  Most Americans are caught up in it.  If it’s not our kids extra-curricular activities, it’s our own social, business, pleasure or philanthropic endeavors.  We must live by the Spirit and not the flesh.  We must seek God for His will in our schedules.  And we must make those decisions for our children.  They cannot make them by themselves.  The lure of the world is too strong.

I am the worst offender.  I can’t tell you how hard it is for me to pass up a “good opportunity”.  But I can also tell you this, that the Spirit in me calls out to me on a consistent basis to say “no” or to cut things from our lives.  This is Friday and since Monday of this week we have only be home together one night, we are heading into the weekend and won’t be all together just to be home until Sunday afternoon.  Help us Lord.  I need to get some time of quiet to pray with my calendar  and a pen, paper and some white-out in my hand.  Begin by listening to what God’s priorities are and then look at your calendar as if it was a budget and you only have a certain amount of nights to spend.  Maybe it’s 50%.  50% of your evenings should be uncommitted.

Then pray for strength, mark off the calendar and walk it out.  Do this over and over and over throughout the rest of your American life.