How Full is your Plate ?

            Have you ever tried so hard to be someone your not to try and meet the needs of what you think people's expectations of you are? At times do you go out of your way to prove that you are organized and have it all together when in reality your are completely the opposite? why do you think that as women we try so hard to be someone we aren't? I ask myself these questions daily. I seem to get myself into situations that I have no busisness being in because I try to come across as this "on top of things" individual when truly I haven't a clue most of the time. There are days when my plate is so full that I have actually prayed that God would give me a few more hours in that day. That is crazy but its true, and what it boils down to is that so many women ,myself included do not or cannot use the word NO when it comes to taking on extra responsibilites for other people. Don't get me wrong I dont have a problem saying NO to my kids or my husband and if you think about it how may times have you been saying NO to God when you skip your Bible reading time because you have so many other things going on.You know I have actually made the excuse I am serving God by helping others so its not nessacery for me to do my devotion today. Heres the thing though, we are only hurting ourselves. First of all overwhelming stress occurs when your week is slam full and that does not include cleaning, laundry , or grocery shopping. I want to make myself very clear when I say that I am not saying you should say No to everyone, but there are days when you have to realign your priorities and make sure God is first and centered . Finding strength in Christ is a very important part of my day. On the days I dont have what I like to call "my Jesus time" I feel lost and even lonely. Philippians 4:13 says " I can do all things through Him who strengthens me."  Another priority up at the top is Family. I cant tell you how many times a day one of my girls are trying to tell me something and I say ok honey one second, or just go in your room for a few minutes I'll be there when I can. It happens every single day and you know what every single day they are growing older and older and if I lose that communication with them now they are eventually going to stop coming to me and I never want that to happen. I know this sounds like a big ole lecture and in some ways it is, to myself. you see, over the past few weeks I have been dealing with MAJOR headaches. I took every over the counter remedy I could find. The other night I started having dizzy spells as well and just before I was about the call the dr it occured to me to check my blood pressure. it was outrageous!!!! I think my bottom(diastolic) number was like 104 ! In that moment I knew things had to change. I knew I had been under tons of stress lately . So much is going on in my life right now. Not all bad stuff most of it very good but it is alot . So I immediatley hit my knees and prayed . I prayed for so many things that night but I prayed for  my health and for me to change the order in which I had my priorities and that is why I decided to blog on this subject. There are women in my life right now that their "daily plates" make mine look like a "saucer" and I just want to send them a message that it is ok to slow down , take a deep breath and repriortize . Proverbs 14:1 says" The wise woman builds her house ,but the foolish tears it down with her own hands."    I think even as Christian women we can get so caught up in trying to be involved in everything around us that we tend to forget or postpone the most important things. and we feel that if we say no we might compromise a relationship or we may hurt someones feelings , but there comes a time that when "family Night" no longer exist because you needed to do something else one night and it turned into weeks and weeks and eventually family night is something you used to do. I am so guilty of this !!! We get so caught up in the moment of our lives that we lose sight of the truly important things !! I think it has to be something that we do daily we sit down and pray about our day or our week that God will give us the knowledge to make the right decisions about who or what we have to say no to .I think once a schedule is in place that truly puts our priorities in order then we will truly find Peace within ourselves about our daily lives.  ~ Heidi ~