God First, Family Second, Church Third, Work last

I cannot tell you how much this is working for me. Now, I have "preached" this for as long as I can remember but somehow got out of the practice. Typical. In my new "world" that I live in which is getting newer every day, this every day practice is saving my life.

This along with the other great and PRACTICAL APPLICATION truth that Doug taught...do the natural, let God do the miraculous.

If you can get ahold of that truth, then you really CAN be free of worry. Do all you can in the natural; read God's Word, Pray, attend church faithfully and and with an open and teachable spirit, follow God's tenets and follow the 4 step plan. God, Family, Church, Work.

I have had opportunity to follow this plan multiple times since I majorly re-committed to it only just a few days ago. Multiple times when I was doing one thing and another HIGHER priority thing came into play, I had to make a choice. WOW.

After a long talk with Tif yesterday morning (thanks Tif) we had our first day of school with my totally being present the entire time. (present meaning I was all there in my mind) and a good long and fruitful bible study to boot. I quit worrying about ALL I HAD TO DO and made the priority actually BE a priority. If something truly has priority status then nothing will get in its way of being done. I stepped out in the natural, the priority of my children and school! The relief I feel is tremendous but worry not, I recognize that it is only day one.
Blue Chip day as it were. ;)

So if you are looking for a prayer to meditate on...nay, I beseech you to pray daily for us brethren; that I can follow and STICK TO God's plan for me to follow His priorities.

So today, if following the schedule, I will have another full day with the kids.
The plan is to do kids most of the day each day, work in the evenings and on the weekends. If I can follow that for awhile I likely can work on Fridays a bit as well...we'll have to see.

Limit myself to as few meetings as possible during the week...only the absolutely necessary ones. Limit my attendance at events...only the most absolutely fruitful ones...and then, TRUST GOD for the rest. Trust that He will do whatever else needs doing. Imbalance comes from not following priorities.

Funny, as I am re-reading this I realize that this is how I always pictured the magazine as being; PART TIME. LOL!!!! Evenings, weekends, you know...as a side job. We literally called it that. Looking at the "new schedule" I see that I now have it scheduled in as a "side job". God will HAVE to do the rest now!

So: If I trust in God and His plan, then I know that I am a part of it. Do I want to be a willing, active participant? Watching God at work in my life and others'? Seeing or at least knowing that I am being used? Or do I want to be an unwitting pawn? Saved- but simply moved about as I live from self instead of from Savior? As long as I earnestly and openly do the natural (what I can) with God as my center through whom I live , and move and through whom I have my very being, then and only then, will I live victoriously.

Postscript: I did my bible study after blogging this morning (normally a NO-NO) and God specifically directed me to Psalm 146. I LOVE when He does that. I had already read everyone's blog as well and had seen worrying or potential cause to worry going on there as well.
Check out God's amazing plan for our worry in:

Psalm 146!

Praise the LORD. Praise the LORD, O my soul.

I will praise the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.

Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save.
When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing.

Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,whose hope is in the LORD his God, the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them—the LORD, who remains faithful forever.

He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets prisoners free, the LORD gives sight to the blind, the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down, the LORD loves the righteous.

The LORD watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked. The LORD reigns forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Praise the LORD.