So what do we do when we have an evening stretching in front of us with not much to do…I’m afraid all too often I fall victim to a night of watching some not so great “reality” television. As women these shows seem to speak to our interests—fashion, gossip, friendships, and lifestyles that seem better than our own. On the surface it seems fun to get “carried away” with Rachel Zoe as she styles Demi Moore for the Oscar parties or maybe watch another group of “Housewives” get in a cat fight in the middle of a busy restaurant or dare I say take another quiz on Facebook.
Recently God has been showing me that I need to get proactive about filling my time with things that are better for me and most importantly please the God I claim to serve. Here are some ideas that I’ve tried…
1. Ladies Book Club
I actually used my contacts on Facebook and sent out a post asking if anyone was interested in joining me for a book club. I got about 10 responses so I chose the latest Joni Eareckson Tada book, typed up a meeting and reading schedule and hosted the first night at my house. We had about 7-8 women come on a regular basis and we met every Thursday night for 6 weeks. Sometimes we met at a local Panera Bread and other times we met at someone’s house. The hostess would provide a few snacks and coffee and we discussed the book and more importantly got to know each other even better and shared in some sweet prayer time each week.
2. My Own Little Bible Study
’m not very good at just reading a chapter of the Bible and then trying to dissect it on my own…my mind tends to wander. I found a Beth Moore Bible study workbook I had started back before I had kids and never finished so I’ve been working through it just completing as much as I can in the time I set aside each day. It’s amazing how refreshing it is when I know I don’t have to get all of the homework done before the next Bible study meeting. I can take my time and if I don’t finish a particular day’s assignment, I just pick it up the next day and continue on.
3. Photo Organizing (Not Scrapbooking!)
I am one of those people who likes to buy all the cute little scrapbook supplies…stickers, paper punches, fancy papers, etc. but I don’t seem to ever sit down and actually complete scrapbook pages. The Type A personality in me gets really annoyed by this but then that natural tendency to procrastinate rears its ugly head and next thing you know I’ve accomplished nothing and feel like a failure! I finally figured out that if I spend even an hour each week just organizing family photos by date and category, I feel like I’m moving in the right direction. The other thing I’ve done recently is purchased some small purse size albums and used each one for a different theme…for example, all of our pictures from a recent trip to the pumpkin patch went in one small album and my daughter and I decorated the cover with some of that fall-themed scrapbook paper and stickers I just happened to have on hand. It felt good to actually finish an album!
These things definitely shouldn’t take the place of spending some good, quality time with your husband. He needs to feel loved and one of the best things you can offer him is your time. It’s easy to shuffle your man to the back burner when the kids demand so much of you each day. My husband and I work together to get kids bathed, books read and in bed so that we have time to spend together and time to spend doing what we like to do individually.
Take some time to consider how you spend your hours each day and you might be surprised by the extra hours you find when you get intentional about how you spend your time.
