Learn How To Master Living A Less Busy Life In A Fast-Paced, Chaotic World.
Rather, you are in your season of motherhood, climbing the ladder in your career, journeying out in your ministry, or, overall, maintaining your home with everything listed above. One thing we all have in common is that we live in a fast-paced world where we are easily distracted trying to keep up with everyday life, resulting in us becoming out of tune with the Holy Spirit and being distanced in our relationship with God.
It has been said many times that there is nothing new under the sun. That everything that we see today has been seen before. You see, as a mother I have been in a long lasting season for years where I have fallen into the gap of maintaining a life that had my schedule full which then required me to manage time strictly to the point that I was only completing task under unrealistic time frames which did not give me satisfying result in the outcome, but had only given me guilt for my attitude towards rushing my toddlers along the way in an exhausted body. I mean, I couldn’t even have simple, joyous moments with them because I would see the long-term consequences of skipping a scheduled block of time to relax, which would throw me off completely. Don’t get me wrong, I had many good moments with my children and loved that I ran my home like an ordinary school, with time frames, since it’s only me playing the role of cook, therapist, doctor, teacher, worship team, coach, and more. But in that time, I realized that I was so busy trying to keep up and not fail or fall behind in my duties at home that I neglected the connection I was supposed to build with my family. It was to the point where I even scheduled loving and affection time to make sure that everyone had a piece of me at some point during the day, but that ideally was not fully genuine since again it was planned in a time frame which made me look at the clock on when I would have to start wrapping up my genuine time with my three toddlers and now a baby. Thankfully, the Holy Spirit allowed me to see the error of my ways and the life that I had managed after witnessing the spirit of anxiety fall on my toddlers, who were trying to keep up.
After being informed that my children suffered anxiety, which they had shown signs of for months with strange, random symptoms, I found myself praying to our Father regarding the issue that I was facing, trying to keep up with life, and wondering why I was like this.
Suddenly, days later, while explaining my mother’s actions at an amusement park to my husband, I realized that I am just like her. I was about to talk about her ways of rushing everyone and being fidgety about time, when the Holy Spirit stopped me in my sentence with such a revelation of who I had become naturally. My mother! It was not until that moment that I realized how I felt about my mother growing up, and the effects it had on me, all for me to become like her, years later.
Over time, her habits had become my habits because that is all I knew, and that passed-down habit had a cost. A cost that affected not only me, but my family. Witnessing what had become my reality led me to pray that this bad habit would end with me. I prayed that my children would live a calm life, free of pressure from the world and from themselves.
Negative Effects of being too busy:
You miss out on intentional time: Time that brings peace, joy, and fulfillment should be cherished and not taken for granted or neglected. That is the time that would bring meaning to your life that you will remember down the road because of the weight effect that it had on your life.
You neglect alone time with God: Can you imagine setting aside time throughout your day to be alone with God? What would that time look like? What would your day look like? When we decide to live a fast-paced life, our bodies become exhausted to the point that the promised morning or night session we plan to give to God is usually and quickly neglected, because our bodies naturally crave rest. What we claim we will do daily with God is easily skipped over in favor of the first task of the day. From that point, there is no going back because then there is always something else you need to do, which puts God further and further on the back burner, placed last in your life, and that is only IF you ever get to Him to have that special alone time.
Health issues: As I have said before, the stress of a busy, fast-paced life can take a toll on your body over time. Anxiety is just one of the side effects, but the worst ones outside of mental health are physical health. Spiritual will always be a given in any situation, but your physical health takes a toll when too much stress or work is put on the body. I have seen it with many loved ones in my family alone who became heart patients and later deceased from the overload that they took on. Or even diseases such as cancer. A body without rest becomes damaged.
If God rested on the seventh day, and if Jesus fled away many times to be alone from the large crowds and the many requests He had received and fulfilled, then you, who are no greater than they, need rest as well. Take care of your health!
You miss the growth in the process: Many of us want things done so quickly that we become impatient and settle for anything received. We lack anticipation of the growth we will receive as we move toward what we want to obtain. Yes, you may be crossing off your checklist fast, but did you learn or experience what you needed to receive during the process before crossing off another check?
Tasks are not completed with the best effort: Have you ever noticed that when you do something too fast or multitask, you feel like you’ve done the work halfway, not putting in the full effort to complete your best work? Many things may seem completed, but they are sloppy work that could have been done exceptionally well had you applied yourself with full focus and reasonable dedication. If you are going to do something, do it right to your best abilities or don’t do it at all. (Good enough is not always good at all)
Your attitude changes: What busy, impatient person, have you met with the best attitude? I haven’t come across one, either. With such a busy schedule, just looking at or thinking about all you must do is stressful, which means your attitude is more likely to be less than ideal from the start. If it is, then pat yourself on the back, but when we examine our attitude at the busiest point of the day, what did we determine about our character? Were you satisfied with your results? If not, then that is a time of reflection that you must take to our Father and wholeheartedly ask for guidance in making a change.
You miss out on life around you: Being too busy is such a crime when you think about the spontaneous moments you feel robbed of missing due to your full focus and time being moved from task to task. It’s always that, “oh, I finished this already, then let me try to see if I can get these things done too,” which turns into a ripple wave of tasks meant for days to come. By the time you come to an end, you realize how much time you missed and how you could have had the whole day if you had just taken the needed breaks or just flowed from your off time into the other parts of your life that you are called to engage in as well. (Being a wife, mother, friend. Family member, pet owner.
Relationships are put last and crumble: And because you kept putting tasks before meaningful time with the people you love, relationships all around you soon begin to crumble. Connection can easily be lost in just days because your priority was always about putting time and effort into completing tasks and being extremely busy, leaving your loved ones in your life to notice their value and time, if measured, not as important as what you needed to get done. And I get it. You may be working hard to give your family the life they “need”, or the one you never had. You may be the mother who wants her children to know they live in an extremely tidy, safe home with the best meals prepared and the best days of outing time they could experience. Still, in reality, if you are not present mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually, building a connection with your loved ones, then all your work means nothing.
I started reading the book of Exodus and came across a passage where Moses went to the king of Egypt to ask for permission to let his people, the Israelites, go. This being his second time to request his people’s departure to go and worship God to a Pharaoh who hated God made the king highly upset. Pharaoh told the enslavers to make work more difficult for the Israelites so that they could not have time to even focus on Moses’s word of encouragement regarding their freedom to worship God, and the enslavers obeyed Pharaoh, making life extremely difficult for the enslaved people, who became angry with Moses, forgetting what God had promised them.
You see, the enemy (Pharaoh) hated God and created more work for the Israelites to keep them fully focused on the strictly requested deadline of their day’s work, to the point where they could not have any time to hear Mose’s messages from God, and at some point in their anger from the harsh treatment they were receiving with the new orders to work, the Israelites quickly became upset towards Moses and God forgetting or even ignoring the messages because they were focusing on their current situation occurring in their daily lives.
My Immediate Thought: Is that not where we are at right now? Super busy with work, super busy with cleaning and maintaining the appearance of the home, out and about running errands, trying to make it to the many events scheduled for the day that our busyness (distractions) keeps us from having time devoted to our Father, who wants our whole heart and worship. A jealous, known Father who wants our time to be put first with Him in every thought of your planned-out day, wanting to live life with you and direct you through your day in a healthy manner.
To come across this passage which I will leave down below for you to read at the end, was a scripture that I have maybe read over and over again but in its right season, I have just truly received what I needed to receive highlighting the errors of my busy lifestyle and seeing the ripple affect it had on not just my life but on the lives around me who I love.
“Make the work harder for the people so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies.”
Exodus 5:9
Now you may ask, “How do I break the ongoing cycle of having a busy lifestyle?” To avoid making an extremely long list of things you can do to free yourself from such a vicious, sneaky lifestyle, I added five simple changes you can apply daily.
5 Healthy Ways to Live A Less Busy Life
1. Honor the Sabbath
Do you honor the Sabbath? Do you have a day dedicated to rest, just as God did and as He intends for us to do? If not, prioritize that day of rest. Do not make an excuse for being needed by everyone else, no! Tell yourself that you are a person who needs a Father and needs rest.
2. Slow Down
Slow down! What is the rush for?
Pray that the Holy Spirit would stop you in your tracks and make you mindful of what you are doing, so you can actually take a breath and slow your pace, allowing you to experience life around you.
This article is what I learned in my season of having no choice but to slow down and rest, and what I learned encouraged me to maintain the new habits that I instilled in my everyday life. ( Slow Down, Pressure Is Off! Be More Like Your Husband –)
3. Give Gratitude
A lot of times, when we are busy, we tend to forget to give God gratitude, which is an action that would truly stop you in your tracks and slow you down, allowing you to embrace what is around you and what your heart is genuinely grateful for.
4. Make Alone Time With God
If you want to continue living with everyday tasks and can’t part ways with time frames, make your first task of the day alone time with God, allowing that time block to be set at a reasonable time frame for you to relax without feeling rushed to end. Alone time with Father is the breath of life that you need to maintain anything that is around you and that you are doing. Be at peace with your time alone, with zero distractions, and fully focus on being with Father, maintaining that relationship with Him first before you attend to everyone else around you.
5. Minimize Your Task Load
You do not have to do everything by yourself or even do everything at once. Give yourself grace and, realistically and peacefully, take on what needs to be done, and be okay with the extra task being moved to another day.
If you have read this to the end, then I believe that this message was for you. I pray that it is not a message you soon forget, but one that helps you become mindful and reflect on your lifestyle, enabling you to make the healthy changes needed. I pray that once you make the change to slow down and minimize your days, you will help others around you see the burnout from the enemy’s schemes to keep us distracted from being with our Father and living the life we are called to live. I pray that you will fully see what really matters around you and that you will be at peace, letting go of the things that drain your energy and hold zero weight in your life. I pray overall for your remaining days to be vibrant and filled with the true meaning of life that brings you peace and joy,
In Jesus’ name,
Amen
Scripture
Bricks Without Straw
Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness.’”
Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go.”
Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Now let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God, or he may strike us with plagues or with the sword.”
But the king of Egypt said, “Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their labor? Get back to your work!” Then Pharaoh said, “Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you are stopping them from working.”
That same day Pharaoh gave this order to the slave drivers and overseers in charge of the people: “You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw. But require them to make the same number of bricks as before; don’t reduce the quota. They are lazy; that is why they are crying out, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’ Make the work harder for the people so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies.”
Then the slave drivers and the overseers went out and said to the people, “This is what Pharaoh says: ‘I will not give you any more straw. Go and get your own straw wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced at all.’” So the people scattered all over Egypt to gather stubble to use for straw. The slave drivers kept pressing them, saying, “Complete the work required of you for each day, just as when you had straw.” And Pharaoh’s slave drivers beat the Israelite overseers they had appointed, demanding, “Why haven’t you met your quota of bricks yesterday or today, as before?”
Then the Israelite overseers went and appealed to Pharaoh: “Why have you treated your servants this way? Your servants are given no straw, yet we are told, ‘Make bricks!’ Your servants are being beaten, but the fault is with your own people.”
Pharaoh said, “Lazy, that’s what you are—lazy! That is why you keep saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.’ Now get to work. You will not be given any straw, yet you must produce your full quota of bricks.”
The Israelite overseers realized they were in trouble when they were told, “You are not to reduce the number of bricks required of you for each day.” When they left Pharaoh, they found Moses and Aaron waiting to meet them, and they said, “May the Lord look on you and judge you! You have made us obnoxious to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.”
God Promises Deliverance
Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Why, Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Is this why you sent me? Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble on this people, and you have not rescued your people at all.”
Exodus 5
