Time

FYI: Here is some rambling. This is all in my head - and I need to get it out! Thanks for dealing with it!

For my lesson today for Young Women's I taught them about how we need to use our time wisely. This lesson couldn't have come at a better time for me. A couple posts ago I wrote about how guilty I felt for napping all the time. And while it was written with complete sarcasm, I really did feel guilty for wasting that time! I felt like I was teaching the girls, and yet learning so much for myself. I remember my father-in-law having a Family Home Evening a few years ago where he told us he really wanted us to use our time wisely, because it is something we will never get back. And it's so true! I wish I could go back and change so many things, but thinking that way will only discourage me and frustrate me, so I've decided to stop feeling guilty about the way I've spent my time in the past, and instead use those experiences to make me better at the way I am going to spend my time now and in the future.

Before my father-in-law's lesson, I never really thought much about how I was spending my time, but as my kids are quickly getting older, I am feeling more and more than time is slipping away. Am I doing everything I can to teach them? Am I using my time to grant them experiences and to spend quality time with them? I taught my girls today that we need to prioritize our activities so that we can be less stressed and overwhelmed. These feelings usually make me a "bad mom", so I'd love to feel less of both! And when we prioritize, we can make time not only for physical things (playing games with our kids, making dinner, cleaning, etc) but for spiritual things, like reading scriptures, meditating, and Family Home Evening. If these things are a priority and I organize my time effectively, I can get everything done I need to get done without being stressed out and crazy!

I also told my girls that prioritizing your time doesn't mean having no fun ever. If you can get done the important things, then you should have plenty of time to do fun things without feeling guilty that you should be doing something else. I think a lot of my time is wasted because I don't plan ahead of time what things I need to get done.

In my lesson we talked about making a list of the things you NEED to do, like go to school, eat, and do homework. Or for me it would be go to work, make meals, and get Rix to school. Then you make a list of things you SHOULD do, like read scriptures, clean the house, and put in a load of laundry. Then you list the things you would LIKE to do, like play games with the kids, watch Glee, and read a book. Decide which from each of these from the last two lists (SHOULD AND LIKE) is the most important, and DO those things the next day. That way you do all the things you NEED to do, and then get things done from your SHOULD do list and even from your would LIKE to do list. You are accomplishing the most important things from those lists, and you can do different things everyday, although scripture reading and cleaning house, etc, might be a priority everyday.

I just want to make sure that every day I become a better wife, mother, and person. Who knows how long we have on this Earth? If I die tomorrow, I want to know that I will return to my Heavenly Father and be with my family forever. So each day I want to spend time making memories with my family and building my testimony so that I can feel good about the time I spend. And since we will all be accountable to Heavenly Father for the way we spend our time, I don't want to feel guilty and try to explain why I wasted my time playing video games or watching mindless TV or whatever. How are you using your time? Something to think about...

Here is a clip of President Eyering. He is so amazing. He is so quiet in his deliverance, yet so powerful. I loved what he had to say and watched the clip several times. I hope you get something wonderful out of it too!