How I Do It All

I just wanted to let you know that you keep me encouraged :) You are always on the go with so much to do... How do you do it?

I get e-mails all the time asking the same thing as this sweet girl. She is a young mother who has 3 children all under 4. She struggles to keep up with it all and feels because she can not do it perfectly, she is not doing a good job. When we read blogs, we only get a teeny tiny glimpse into someones life...sure I share more than most, but I hate to think people "see" a woman who "does it all".

In looking at many of my posts, it appears that things here run pretty smoothly. Thanks to scheduling, most days they do. Still, do I do it all??? Not hardly. I do not want to post all my failures in my days, but there are many! Plus, I do NOT have children who are in diapers, nor do they need nursing, or regular feedings...ok, so my kids still require to be fed, but what I mean is, they can feed themselves if necessary. I do want to be an encouragement to young wives and mothers, but I also need to be real here. It is never going to be perfect for any of us.There will always be laundry to do....you may have an empty hamper in your house for a few hours, but soon enough someone is gonna change clothes! (I rarely have empty hampers)
There will rarely be a day when dishes are not calling, or meals are not needing to be prepped.
There will always be dust collecting somewhere! Add to that, a screaming baby, a tired toddler, and a hungry preschooler, and "doing it all" seems unfathomable. And it is!

Here is my e-mail response to my sweet friend (edited for personal content)

I will tell you how I do it ALL....I don't! Nope, not even close. I just pick out the most important things and do those...most of the time, I get those wrong too!

I knew how to do laundry and clean, but organization, scheduling, and cooking have been those things I have had to learn the hard way.
The very best years of my life...to this date...were when I was exactly where you are. My boys were little and I was a young mom. Things seemed really hard, but looking back, they were only hard cause I made them hard. If I could do it all over again I would do this...

Spend more time with the Lord
Spend more time playing with my boys
Spend less time worrying about the chores
Spend less wasted time on the phone with friends...no computer back then

Shoot...I said if I had a chance to do it all over again and here I sit with my youngest children who I could be "doing it all over again" with!
Don't look at blogs and think they have it all together, cause no one does completely, plus they do not have your life, which only you can live. Whatever we make a priority in our life, is where we store our treasures. I am big on saying priorities should be
God first
Husband second
Children third
Ministry fourth
Everything else fifth
but it is a daily struggle to follow that. Today my treasures are not being stored in those top places. I need to step back and re organize my day....just like reorganizing a drawer, or closet....you put those important things up front where they are easily accessible, and the other things, which you need, but are of lesser importance, you put toward the back. They are still there, but they have been put in a place fitting their purpose in your life.
It is not easy to put specific tasks in order of priority in some cases. God first is just that....Bible reading, prayer, praise and worship...all FIRST priority. So where does house work fall? For me it is second cause it is important to my husband. Very important. Do I tell my kids...who are third...I can't play with you til the dishes are done? Sometimes, but should I? I don't think so. I could have them help me and spend time with them while doing dishes. Do you say to your new baby, "Sorry sweetie, Mommy needs to clean the tub before you can eat, even though you are starving." Heavens NO! It is a delicate task to list all your priorities. I can not tell you that it is even possible, but I can tell you this....I promise....If you put God first and seek His Kingdom then EVERYTHING else will be added unto you...a clean house, time to clean it, happy children, happy husband, happy YOU.
Thanks for your sweet e-mail of encouragement.
Now I need to go reorganize my day...I put God in the back of the closet when I got up this morning!
Blessings~ Bren