Janelle Esker It’s no secret that I am a recovering busy person. I confess to doing it all wrong and doing it wrong for many years. Then everything changed for me as I developed one autoimmune disease after another until my life was threatened. That stops you in your tracks and causes you to evaluate your life, so here are 3 Things To Do Today to Simplify Your Life!
I am excited to share just a few of the things I have learned that have truly transformed my life! Now five years later, I am doing well and still apply these principles to simplify my life on a daily basis. I wholeheartedly pursue Christ-Centered Slow Living and am reaping the rewards, I pray you will too!
3 Things To Do Today to Simplify Your Life
KNOW THE RULES
The number one step to making your life simpler is to know why you were created! Thanks to God’s Holy Bible we can know that our purpose in life is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. Remember, that we are to enjoy God! We like to forget that part. We must spend time with God to enjoy Him. Take some time today to crack open your Bible and see what God’s priorities for life are. Once we see what God expects of us, we can set priorities for ourselves and our family. We also see what we need to eliminate.
SET GOALS
Set goals that are in line with scripture for you, your marriage, and your family. Sit down and pray with your husband first, and then get your whole family involved! One of the things that have been very helpful to our family is to have a family mission statement. There are many ways to accomplish this. We have used several different templates but I recommend using a great tutorial in Tsh Oxenreider’s book Organized Simplicity: The Clutter-Free Approach to Intentional Living. Cut out anything that is not congruent with those goals.
SAY NO
I can guarantee that there are some activities that each one of us is involved in that are not what God has for us. Even Church activities are not always the best. When we take time to open the Bible we see that if we would model our lives, after what the Bible says and not the inventions of man we would possess much simpler lives. Church membership would be holy and lovely. In this American culture, we have made our churches a place of stress and over-commitment. We even get so busy that we ignore what God deems as important for cheap substitutions. Start saying NO to the substitutions and Yes to only those things God has called you to. One of the tools that have helped me determine what to say yes to, is the Monk Manual, a daily planner that helps you prioritize what Jesus sees as priorities. Drawing from the wisdom of monastic life, modern psychology, and best practices in personal productivity, the Monk Manual provides a daily system that will help you find clarity, purpose, wisdom, and peace in the moments that make up your life. Click HERE for FREE printable pages!!!
“After all,” Anne had said to Marilla once,
“I believe the nicest and sweetest days
are not those on which anything very splendid
or wonderful or exciting happens but just those
that bring simple little pleasures,
following one another softly, like pearls slipping off a string.”
― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea
YOUR TURN…
What are you doing to simplify your life?
Blessings,
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I need to learn how to say No. I am not very good at it. At all. How do you do it?
Well, I am not very good at it either 🙂 I did however just say No today to an opportunity so I may be making progress. One of the things I do is to always say I will pray about it. At first I am always all over the opportunity but when I ask God to show me if this is for me or not then things become clearer. I also ask myself what will I give up if I do this and what will I gain? I hope this will help!
Thank you!
You are welcome!
It appears your link for the monk manual is not working. Just thought I would let you know!
Thank you so much for letting me know, Mary! I’ll fix the link ASAP!