Overwhelm. {Day 6}
I fell into bed the other night and heaved a big sigh. Husband asked if everything was ok and I said that I was just feeling the weight of my mid-week responsibilities. I am a Bible Study Fellowship discussion leader, so Wednesday morning I have leaders meeting and Thursday morning I have class. The hours between the two always rush by, the kids never sleep well, dinner is never efficiently planned and I always waste too much time on my phone in a rare moment I might get. So come Thursday morning, no matter what time I get up, I feel like I can't take a moment to breathe, make some coffee and stop the rush.
The Lord will help me with this. I'll learn to make my coffee the night before (I only have a stovetop espresso maker so this is not ideal in perfect-cup-of-coffee land), take shorter showers, and prioritize my evenings better so I do the things that really matter and let the others go.
But my wise husband also reminded me that this is excellent practice for our mission field.
Our small church planting team, currently just two couples and a single gal who teaches at the Christian school, is trying to reach an area with a population of nearly 40,000 - just a portion of Alcalá de Henares itself. So, as you can imagine, they are busy. Between English tutoring, discipleship meetings, youth group, midweek prayer, Bible studies and pursuing interests that a) keep one sane and b) help grow one's community, overwhelm is probably inevitable. I am grateful to practice balancing ministry life here in states, where I can speak English and have coffee with a lifelong friend to catch my breath.
Father in Heaven, I thank you for the good things you've given me to do in this season of life: raising babies, home preschool, and leading women as we study the Life of Moses together. Please teach me to create margin in my schedule so that I can breathe and listen to the Holy Spirit. Please teach to prioritize according to what you deem important, not what might seem important. I pray this for my church planting team in Spain as well. Thank you for guiding us so perfectly. In Jesus' name. Amen.
How do you handle schedule overwhelm?