Two Words

Betsy is spending this week with her family and Heidi is busy packing for a move, so I am going to share the next few days about 2 words that I have learned alot about over the years...mostly the hard way! The 2 words are Margin and Rhythm.

These 2 words are powerful reminders to me as I live each day, I hope I can communicate in this blog how I have implemented them in my life.

Richard Swenson wrote a book entitiled, "Margin: How to Create the Emotional, Physical, Financial and Time Reserve You Need." It's a great book. I'm not sure what I share this week is directly from this book but I hope to share how Margin has worked in my life.

What is Margin?

Margin is the extra.

Margin is the left-over.

Margin is the space between performance and our breaking point.

We all need margin. A life without margin can be destructive;
Stress levels increase.
Focus becomes all about me.
Relationships suffer.

I used to think that the more that I could fit into my days (and nights) the better. I thought multi-tasking was a virtue but as I multi-tasked...the more margin I used up. The result was more stress, a self-absorbed focus and relationships that faltered.

Fear was the reason I kept moving and doing. I was fearful I would miss out. I was seeking approval in all the wrong places. I couldn't afford to have margin in my life, I had too much to do.

Sound familiar? I've got to believe all women have eaten up the margin in their lives at some point. We are just wired that way. Do, do, do. Serve, serve, serve. Run, run, run.

Margin Living is intentional living.

What I have found is that to build margin into my life, I have to TRUST. It's an issue of TRUST more than anything else. Will I trust God to fill in where I can't perform? Will I turn my days over to Him? Or will I seek to control it all myself?

As my Margin goes....God goes.