Margin in our lives

This morning I happened to be in the car at 7 a.m. when I heard Richard Swenson on the Focus on the Family radio program. He was talking about the fact that we need a margin in our daily life. We do not have to have every hour of every day scheduled with an activity. He said that sometimes we should say "no".

In the mid 1990's I remember a speaker with several children at the TPA Homeschool conference in Wichita who said that she has no ministry outside the home. The entire audience stood up and clapped. I clapped, too. Why? I think that was the year in which I was teaching 3 - 5 years old on Wednesday night and Kindergarten on Sunday. That was also when I was homeschooling all six of my children. But what became too much was when the Wednesday teachers decided to have the Wednesday night children plant flowers. We planted them but nobody was watering them after a week. The pastors did not think it was their resoonsbility. So I decided I would take that job on. So every day that summer I came to church to water the flowers. Two weeks in August the temperature was about 110 degrees every day. So I came twice a day. The next year the pastor asked me if I wanted to be responsible for the flowers in front of the church since they were so beautiful the previous summer. I wisely said no. I did recommend a different lady who is still enjoying being responsible for the flowers. I have learned over the years that activities do take more time than you originally think that they would.

We do have a book in the S.V.H.E. library by Richard A. Swenson published in 1992 named Margin.

Check out this book from our library or you could check the Focus on the Family web-site. http://www.focusonthefamily.com/ Dr. Swenson spoke on October 12 & 13, 2010. I do not know how long programs are kept online. But it is worth your time. You might also want to check out Richard Swenson's web-site. http://www.richardswenson.org/index.html