Surrender Your Time

I’ve always considered myself a very practical person. I make to-do lists and keep a master calendar of everyone’s appointments, etc. All of this to help me stay on the treadmill of life. This was even more essential when I had four children at home whose lives often went in different directions.

When I was first married and even before I had children, I had a revelation about my planning habits. One of those “this must be from God because I can’t possibly being doing that” moments. The revelation...I was finding my security in my plan instead of in God. Ouch! What a wake-up call. Did this mean I should never plan out my days or weeks? I knew that wasn’t true. Somehow I had to let God help me change my attitude towards those plans. If they got changed or I didn’t know what was coming up that day or week, I needed to learn to be okay with that and find peace in knowing that God knew what each step of every day would look like for me.

Along came four children and even though my attitude toward planning had changed, I was a typical homeschooling mom with more things to do than hours in my day. Or so it felt. There was always a list of priorities and activities that need to be accomplished or completed. In those days, the idea of a “quiet time” with God was something that happened in the shower or as your head hit the pillow at night. The sense of deadlines looming on the horizon moving ever closer as we try to keep up with everything can rob us of our peace.

During that time, two things helped put a brake to my treadmill routine. I remember hearing how we should be evangelizing and bemoaning the fact that my world was full of Christians so how could I possibly evangelize. Then I heard a message about divine interruptions and a light bulb went on. How many times had I planned out my day and then I would get a call from someone who needed a favor? Or run into someone in a store and end up encouraging them in the produce aisle? Divine interruptions! Now I had a name for these little detours that I could have resented for messing up my plans or learn to welcome as part of God’s plan.

The second thing is a “thought for the day” that I will never forget. It was on a little calendar that I had on my bathroom counter. I turned it over one September morning and it said

“There’s enough time in each day to do God’s will.”

No light bulb this time. More like a hammer on the head! Why was I so worried about what I was going to accomplish today or getting through my to-do list? If my plans were God’s will for me that day, they would get done. What a relief! I didn’t have to worry about if I had enough hours in the day. Instead I needed to surrender my plans, my time to the Lord and let Him have control of all of it.

So, now I plan and schedule sometimes wondering how it will all work out, but there is a peace knowing that today is not in my hands. It’s in His and I willingly surrender to the One who knows what I need to do today. Writing included.

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Elaine is Secretary/Treasurer of Mile High Scribes, the ACFW South Denver Chapter. With 3 children home from college this summer, her time management skills are being put to the test once again. She is spending a large percentage of the summer on road trips to Canada, Arizona and taking children back to college.