Excuses and Priorities

Some excuses can be pretty lame, but others are actually valid. But they are both excuses. I think a big difference is recognizing your priorities. If you slept in one morning something has to give. Maybe you regularly get up early than needed and thus put a lower priority on sleep, but for times like this you have created some padding in your schedule to still do what is important. Maybe you make compromises and just grab a granola bar to eat at work, I've done this a few times. But how bad does it feel when you decide to skip your quiet time with the One who really matters? I've done this, and I usually end up regretting it.

Yesterday I received some comments about not missing workouts, thus not needing excuses. But is physical exercise really that much of a priority? What about mental exercise such as scripture memory? Is it harder to have the will power for that? I think so, if my mind is tired it is hard to do, but my mind can force my tired body to do things.

Is it just me, or do others put a lower priority on spending time with Jesus too?
How is this corrected?

New Habits to Form

So I'm working on my new habits, and last night wasn't so good. Actually, yesterday over all wasn't good for habits. It was a good day, but it started off with me waking up early and playing games, which took way too long. Which wasn't too bad, I was planning on driving my car, so I had some extra time.

Then that evening we didn't work out, or clean the kitchen. I did a little bit of clean up in the living room, but it could have used some more.

So I guess it is time to refocus. Talked with the wife and we think having Thursday and Monday off from working out is a good idea. So I still need to keep the kitchen and living room clean. Which really doesn't take that much time.

Things to do

Exercise: Weight/strength training at night (M-F)
Clean up kids toys every night.
Clean kitchen every night.
Buy new bike saddle.
Plant trees. - have to buy them first. Also need the right time of year to do this.
Seal outdoor playset.

So there is the list of things to try and remember to do. Not much going on. I thought of writing down play with kids, but that is pretty hard to forget, they keep reminding me and we have a good time.

I think I missed my timing to plant a tree, but I need to look that up. I'm thinking of a peach tree, and something else. Not sure what that something else is though. I currently have a pear tree where I need to plant these. I originally had a peach, cherry and pear, but the pear was all that survived, I think some ants got to them and ate at the roots when I first planted them. So I'll probably need to prepare the lawn and put down a pesticide first so I don't have grubs eating it or something.

This weeks memory verse is 2 Timothy 3:16, but I decided to add verse 17 also because I previously had them memorized together and it feels strange stopping at the end of verse 16.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 "All scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work." 2 Tim 3:16

Last night Julie and I cleaned up the house and did a short ab workout. It was only 10minutes, and we used to do 30minutes. We have definitely gotten a little out of shape. But I really enjoyed the time with her. We got the kids to bed at 9, they have been staying up later than that, but we are trying to get them to bed earlier again.

Observe

Ephesians 5:15-16

Getting It Together

Well, time to make some changes in my day to day routine.

• Have Quiet Time in the morning instead of the DFL homework. DFL homework examines the scriptures with leading questions and doesn't really let the Word speak on its own. Do DFL homework at night.
• Stop making excuses and ride the bike.
• Start journaling each day to record opportunities to show the love of Christ. These opportunities could be taken or missed, but the idea is to be more mindful of them.

That should be a good start. I rode in this morning taking it easy. My throat is bothering me again and I'm uncertain why. But I finally decided that not riding doesn't seem to change anything, and I really enjoy riding. Had a great ride, mid 50s temperature, no wind, low traffic; all around very pleasant.

The journal idea came from the memory verse for this week:
Ephesians 5:1-2 "Therefore be imitators of God as beloved Children, and walk in love just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us. An offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma." Eph 5:1-2
How did I do? "Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; ²and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. " I really messed up the punctuation, but did well with the words, which makes sense. I have not written this verse out much so I miss a lot of punctuation just learning it orally.

The point of the quiet time is that I don't want to try to extract specific points from the scriptures, but to read the scriptures for what they have to say. DFL homework makes you examine the scripture with specific points to extract from it.

I would like to add working out somewhere, but I think I need to get these as a routine first then add workout in a week or two.

So much to do in so little time

Life is going pretty well. Life is also busy. I'm trying to figure out how to do what I want to do, but still have a peaceful life that I don't stress about things. My day seems consumed by work and kids.

I'm guessing everyone feels this way. Yesterday was pretty nice, I had some time to read even with the kids running around. Didn't have much time to read, and it was frequently interrupted. Had time to clean the kitchen too. Fun times indeed. But when do I take time to work on my bike. That seems to be a weekend thing. During nap time I guess.

Morning not so routine

Still trying to figure out the morning schedule. Had my meeting this morning at 6:30 and we left around 7:35. So that timing worked out well. i showed up about 10min late though because my car battery was dead this morning. I left my lights on when I came home Friday, but I turned them off then, but I guess it was too late. I didn't think it would have been.

How much time do other people take in the mornings. Last week Julie and I agreed to get up together at 6:30, but that hasn't worked out very well for me. I haven't gotten much of my DFL homework done, so something needs to change. I think I'll have to go back to waking up before Julie. Not sure yet, but obviously I have to wake up earlier on Mondays for the meeting.

The issue we are working through is going to bed at the same time. But if I get up an hour earlier then we won't be going to bed at the same time, and we did this for a few days and it wasn't helping the relationship at all.

Time is short

So this morning Julie and I tried a different routine. I was driving to work today, so I had a few extra minutes to be home. We calculated that I need to wake up at about 6:30 to get to work on time whether biking or driving. Well, I'm not sure how this is going to work. David woke up with us for some reason. We just let him cry because he wasn't supposed to be awake yet. I just didn't have as much time as I was wanting, but it was nice to go to bed at a reasonable time with my wife and get up with my wife for a change.

But the real issue to be addressed is why I drove to work. Basically I need my car to go out to lunch on Thursday and Friday, but Thursday and Friday have nice warm mornings compared to today. So I drove today and will leave my car at work, and drive home Friday.

So, I need to figure out how to get faster on my bike so I can quickly go 2-3 miles to lunch, then back to work without taking time away from my lunch break. I'm thinking this may just require training. It could be that simple. I need to push myself to go faster, but how do I do that without arriving a mess? Currently the weather is good for biking at lunch, but it will get hot.

Whatever, I don't need to dwell on this very long, there are other things that I need to do.

15 minutes makes a big difference

So I started meeting with Andy from church on Monday mornings as part of DFL. So I decided to wake up at 6 instead of 6:15. Monday was pretty rushed because we met at Starbuck's but we are thinking of meeting at IHOP instead so we can enjoy breakfast and not have to rush through it at home.

Well, today I get up with the plan of biking to work. Look at the weather forecast, it is already above freezing. Last night it was forcasted to be 26 degrees. So I was very happy to see it 8 degrees higher. I prepared everything last night so I wouldn't make a lot of noise and wake others up. That helped, because David woke up coughing at 6:05. I really think that extra 15minutes this morning helped make my morning calmer and more enjoyable. I was able to have my morning quiet time, eat breakfast, prepare my lunch and feed David. Things went pretty well. But now in order to get 8 hours of sleep I need to be asleep by 10pm. That is going to be pretty hard.

Now to leave you with this week's memory verse.
Luke 14:26
"If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple."
Luke 14:26

Update for Christmas time

Well, things have been great and a bit chaotic. It is amazing how much easier things are when I have my regular work schedule. I haven't been doing my quiet time, or memorizing scripture. That is pretty sad. I really need to make a better effort to work on what is important on my days off from work. I need to make a stronger effort, but usually when I get off on my days off it is because a kid is awake and needs attention. It is easier to do in the morning than trying to do it during nap time. But if that is the time available then that is when it should be done.

What about everyone else? Do you find it easier on your regular routine days or is it easier on a day off when you have more time? I could see it being very different without kids.

Order in the Chaos that is Life

So, Julie is done with her women's Bible study. So that means it is time to go back to the memory verses with her. And at the same time we are trying to work out at least 3 times/week. The thinking for the workout was after David went to bed, but we are feeling that we are too drained at that time. So we are trying to think of a better time.

I'm afraid that will the holidays coming up so soon this great plans we have just won't work out. On top of it all I would like to try spending 10min a night cleaning the house. It has been a long time since our bathrooms have been clean, and I'm pretty sure I could get one done in 10 minutes.

Then another piece I would like to add to my chaotic life is encouragement. I want to encourage others, and I try to, I just feel the words I use don't seem to come across that way. Maybe I really just need to work on communicating better.

So with the holidays coming life gets more chaotic, and to make it more of a challange since it isn't once already (sarcasm), we are trying to accomplish some additional goals. YAY!

Attempted schedule change

This morning was a little different, I had some friends over last night to game and left the kitchen somewhat of a mess so I could get to bed. Well, that was a mistake. I didn't realize how bad of a mess the kitchen was. It took me too much time to get it cleaned this morning, so I wasn't able to write in my blog this morning, but I planned to post during my lunch break. Well, lunch was a bit busy but now I have some time. Basically I need to figure out a good time to post. I don't think I can continue with mornings because I need to leave early when I bike. Granted I won't really be doing much biking until after Christmas, but it would be fun to develop a routine. I'm planning on gaining some time by quitting World of Warcraft again. It is amazing how much it eats into family time.

With this new found time I plan to spend it with my family, or maybe reading, or posting. I have plenty of things to do with it. Hopefully I can keep the house in decent shape too.

I think I need to evaluate things in my life more often and try to deal with them quicker. We have so much stuff in our house that we are trying to sell now which is good, but we have held onto some of this stuff for so long and we don't know why. A lot of it is stuff that came with the house that the sellers left. Other things are upgrades we have made, like our fireplace.

Trying to establish a routine

The good news is that time isn't flying by real quick and I get to enjoy the kids while they are young.  The bad news is that time isn't flying by real quick and the nights aren't a restful as the once were.  

Over the past couple weeks I've learned just how much my hobbies cut into the limited time I have.  I like to play video games, and played a lot that first week Katie was around.  We had plenty of help people brought us food (and still do), and I only worked half days.  But the next week I worked a full week and what a difference that makes.  So I think I need to reexamine how I spend my time.  That week I really didn't play much at all with my video games.  Which is ok.  I enjoy my games, but they aren't fullfilling.  This week I'm trying to increase how much reading I do.  There are so many good books I already have and want to read.  Last Friday we finished reading through the ESV Bible, so now we are reading through a narrated chronological bible.  I can't remember what version, but I think NIV.  

But is reading books all that important?  I say no.  I try to spend more time with my son during the day and he goes to bed around 8, so that is when I take time to read.  Last night was great, Julie had the TV off so I read some with her and I enjoyed it.  The house just feels so much more peaceful without the TV.

Tough to get started

It is hard to make some significant changes in your life and stick with them longer than a week. These changes can range from activities like training for a race, dieting or even hobbies.

Some changes I would like to make, and would like some input on are my prayer life and study of scripture.

Prayer requests can seem overwhelming, so I'm thinking of making it more manageable by picking different days of the week to pray for different groups. I need to put more thought into, but let's start with today. Tuesday I could pray for my wife and children, that should be plenty for one day, and I want it to be a good time not a burden, so I will try to keep it thin. Better idea, let's start out just listing some different things. NLR sends out an update with prayer requests each week, my household, my family, my extended family, government, military, schools and other authority, there is also my church group that meets once a week that has different requests. And let's not forget my friends and then we need to leave room for other things that I'll add on later.

So Tuesday let's leave as my household.
Wednesday can be family and extended family
Thursday can be government
Friday can be NLR
Monday can be church

Now I purposely left out Saturday and Sunday because being the weekend those days are pretty chaotic. I also need to watch Friday, but if I'm busy Friday then I could move it to Sunday. I want this to be achievable, and again non burdensome. Now that I have a general idea I need to make it doable. So that means picking a specific time to set apart each week day to do this. Mornings or evenings come to mind at first, so I'll start and try to do this in the morning with my quiet time. I could even put this on a card to reference for each day.

Time to move on to the scriptures. Mainly I would like to focus on memory. I already have a good habit of nightly reading and morning quiet times, but I'm not memorizing the scriptures. So recently my church has a life response section that start with memorize and meditate on a passage of scripture. Well, I've started to do this in the evenings, but haven't been putting enough effort into it. I'm thinking I need to write the verse more often, because simply reading it isn't enough. I'm thinking of working on the memory during lunch at work, I have time for that except Thursdays and Fridays when I have lunch with some friends, but hopefully by that time I can just recite it during the drive.

What do you guys think? Any tips on making this easier and more enjoyable?

Also, I thought I would provide a link for Fellowship Bible Church http://www.fbctulsa.org