Does your home feel like chaos? Mine did. It still often does. And I believe occasional chaos/busyness is a part of life. I have 5 kids. Our house is loud and busy, our minutes filled to the brim with very few outside pleasures.
But I was convicted for the past 6 months that we were living a life of constant chaos with very little order. And some of you might say…that’s just the way it is. Or, “There’s nothing we can change.” But our God is a God of order. Not that life is perfectly ordered, but I do believe He doesn’t mean for us to constantly feel overwhelmed, exhausted, and stressed. That’s no way to live long term. It’s going to lead to dis-ease, anxiety, health issues, and breakdown.
So toward the end of the year, Todd and I sat down and we walked through all of our problem points – all the areas where we see ourselves NOT thriving. We looked at our spiritual lives, overall health, family schedules, daily and weekly tasks, business and work schedules, and kids’ activities. And we had to make some hard decisions. Some things had to go or push pause. Some work had to be handed to someone else. Some changes required our own discipline as parents to enforce in our home, or in our own personal lives. And some changes just required a reworking or creativity to change what wasn’t working and re-create it a new way.
We also invited our kids into some of these decisions that they would be most affected by, and here’s what we did:
- Developed a simple morning routine, afternoon
routine, and evening routine. - We gave each kiddo a laundry day where they’re required to do their own laundry (the older 3) and younger 2 help when it’s their day.
- Reworked my weekly schedule to set aside daytime hours to do things I dislike and put off, like paying bills and ordering groceries.
- Eliminated some work that was adding unnecessary stress.
No amount of money, no title, no rung of the ladder, and no amount of growth in business is worth constant chaos, stress, and anxiety. These simply don’t align with God’s goodness. They are a path of destruction and destruction is from the Enemy. So friend, your decisions on how to run your home, business, and life might not align with what the world says is good, but if it’s leading to destruction, something has to end. Don’t wait for a “slower season.” It’s not coming. The change depends on you. So think out of the box. Commit to a small change. What’s your next action step? You’re not meant to live frazzled. Frazzled does nothing for the Kingdom. You’re meant to live from an overflow.
