Reduce busyness with this simple tip

and I would say I don’t know but I have

been busy see I was pulled all over the

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place okay today I’m going to talk about

whether you’re focused or whether you

are busy now I’ve already told you that

focus is a challenge for me what I

didn’t tell you is I’m also kind of

messy when you get too busy you get

messy now John is not messy John puts

everything away after he gets it out

somehow I don’t know I forget to put

things away and just the other night

something happened something I’ve never

done before I was getting ready for bed

and I was going to brush my teeth which

I do on a regular basis but instead of

picking up a tube of

toothpaste I picked up a facial cleanser

I put it on my toothbrush and I started

brushing my teeth and within about 5

seconds I realized wait a minute that is

not toothpaste that is something else

see I had the right thing in the wrong

place and because I had the right thing

of facial cleanser and the wrong place I

picked up the wrong thing and I used it

for the wrong thing so when you do not

have things where they belong you will

end up misusing the right thing at the

wrong time which makes it the wrong

thing and when my kid were little and

again I am I’m 60 I’m a grandmother now

but I remember when my kids were little

my life was messy it was busy I called

it the Blessed blur but I was focuses

for days John would leave to go to the

office come back and the house would be

in incredible chaos and disarray and he

would look at me and say what have you

been doing all day and I would say I

don’t know but I have been busy busy was

accurate focused would have been a lie

see I was pulled all over the place my

husband was a youth pastor at a church

and we thought it was wrong to have an

unlisted phone number so our phone

number was listed which meant about 9:00

in the morning the phone started ringing

I had three little kids running around

my house but I would pick up every

single phone call that came in because I

thought that I was being selfless I

thought that I was being saint-like

allowing everybody to interrupt my life

but you know what I wasn’t being Saint

light and I wasn’t being selfless I was

being careless because you should never

allow those outside of your house to

interrupt what is happening in your home

now I’m not talking about people in need

I’m not talking about people that call

you in a desperate situation not talking

about that I’m talking about a youth

pastor’s wife answering the phone all

the time and ignoring her children

that’s what I’m talking about where my

children became a bother and the phone

calls that were interruptions became the

focus and the truth was I was never

fully present for either people I was

not really at my best for the people

that were asking for advice while I’m

navigating children

nor was I at my best for my children

while I have a phone attached to my ears

if we are not careful we will give more

attention to our virtual relationships

than our actual

relationships I don’t want you to live

in the Frantic in between looking at

your virtual connections and ignoring

your actual connections see it’s always

going to be easier to argue with people

online than have the hard conversations

with your husband it will always be

easier to give other people advice than

to live out parenting with your children

it will always be easier to argue with

strangers than to reason with God but

God invites you and I to reason with him

he says come now let’s reason together

though your sins be like Scarlet I’m

going to make them white as snow God is

saying there is a Redemptive plan in

every broken place in your life but you

should not be engaged with people who

are not in a position to help you with

things looking back at my life I’m going

to Real realize that there were times

where it was easier for me to embrace

distraction than to actually focus and I

had to ask myself why why am I avoiding

doing this and here’s some of the

answers I came with sometimes I was

procrastinating because I didn’t feel

like I had what I needed to start other

times I procrastinated because I was

afraid I didn’t have what I needed to f

finish sometimes I procrastinated

because I did not want to ask for the

help that I actually needed but when you

make a decision that you are not going

to be living by every single distraction

every single thing that pulls you in all

sorts of different directions when you

become a focused child of God then the

enemy gets nervous see distraction is

such a widely successful Ploy of the

enemy that is why it is so widely

deployed he does not want you to know

who you really are because if you find

out who you really are then he’s going

to find out that you are a force to

contend with Focus your energy Focus

your power focus in on your season I

wish I would have

understood that that season with my

children that was exhausting was going

to go way quicker than I could ever

imagine there’s always going to be

people who have needs and want to put a

pull on you but you have to decide what

your focus is going to be it’s always

exciting to get a bunch of likes on an

Instagram post or a Facebook post but

really what builds Our Lives is our iron

sharpens iron relationship so

focus on

those