Being a Good Steward: Preparing Your Life

As I blogged about the other day my words for 2012 are "prepare" and "listen." You will be hearing me journey through these two words this year on the JT blog. When we think about being prepared we think about people who have it all together, sometimes they are the ones that you don't enjoy being around because it seems like they never drop the ball and it makes you look bad! I am not talking about being prepared like that when I talk about the word "prepare." I'll explain.

A Good Steward

In the Bible, a good steward is simply a manager. It was to manage a household or palace (Genesis 39:4-5; 44:1). I am the manager of my palace (he he!) as a stay at home mother. I am the one who is here and knows more about the "in's" and "out's" of the schedule, meals, laundry, engagements etc. I have been prepared, inside my home, but as I asked the LORD this year what He wanted me to work on, it was so clear, "Prepare your Home. Quit wasting time."

Ouch!!!!

It cut right to the marrow.

Now let me say this, my home is clean. If you walked in, you would think that I was prepared! But I knew in my heart of hearts that I could be better prepared in the places that are unseen. The junk drawers and laundry room. My closet. The attic. Organization for me is difficult because I am an artsy, creative person by nature. We creative persons don't like watches, schedules, or anything that has to do with everything finding a place. We can work with a messy desk and know where everything is. It has been easy to use creativity as a crutch to justify to myself my desk being a mess or my art studio being in need of some organization.

So here is where I am going.

God reminded me that HE is the giver of TIME (Genesis 1:1; Psalm 90:4) HE is in the business of CHANGE. When I yield to His leading and act in obedience to what He would have me do, blessings come. Since January 1st, I have daily committed to one area of my home to organize and get rid of the "extras" in my life that have been weighing me down and causing me to waste time in my day.

Loving the Laundry

The picture above is about laundry. My laundry room is little, but I wasn't using it properly. I had wasted space and would say to myself, " It will take a lot of time for me to get it in order." I didn't want to do it. But the more it rocked on, the more it was inefficient. So now, it's not. YAY!!!! It took me a few hours to get through it, clean it really good and organize the wasted space. WE Love our laundry room now!! I am working on a picture to paint to place on the wall above my washer and dryer to remind me of my blessings found in Christ as I fold clothes. I want the laundry to even be a great place where I can use the time God has given me to focus on him and not on how unorganized my laundry room is. This spring I am going to repaint it, but for now, I am working on the organization part.

                                                                          Before

After

Being prepared for me this year is about not wasting time. I am not talking about hours of wasted time. I am talking about minutes of wasted time that if things were in its place would make a huge difference in a day.

For me, it was looking for a stamp, a sharpie, etc.

God has given us an allotted amount of TIME for each day. To be prepared is NOT about being the person who never drops the ball. It is NOT about being the best person at being organized. It IS about preparing your life to be a good steward of the time God has given you in each day.

This is painful for me to admit, but I pray it encourages you to be prepared for each new day. To not waste time huffing and puffing about trying to find a sharpie, or a pair of jeans. Organize your life not to be super woman, but to be a good steward of the time God has given you in each new day!