Simplifying Life a Little Bit at a Time

Welcome back!

I have had many readers ask me how I was simplifying my life since I have been making a good many changes here and shared with you all that I was in the process of “simplifying”.  I thought I’d share with you what I am doing and how it’s coming along.

Like anything when you make changes in your life in order to truly be successful you must do it a “little bit at a time.” You cannot wake up one day and decide, I’m going to make a bunch of changes in my life, starting today, because quite frankly you’ll likely fail.  There are not many people, at least I don’t know any who are disciplined enough to make a great deal of changes all at once and be successful.

So, I decided to start small.  First, I looked at my commitments, this was an area where my plate was obviously too full.  I stepped down from some things, and reduced the commitment to others.  Mind you most of these were “good” things, dutiful things like teaching classes at church or creating a weekly newsletter to minister to moms of girls, but these things were time consuming and took my focus off of my family.  As a mom, my first focus, after my Savior should be my husband and my family.  I admit, mine was not because I had too many commitments.

I’ll be sharing more in future posts.  This will be the first in a series about simplifying life a little bit at a time.  Check back!

Photo credit: copta

I Set My Mind To . .

Funny how I’ve always been taught, “you can do whatever you set your mind to.” Yet, in doing even the simplest of things, namely taking care of my home, I struggled.  The truth is, my mind nor my heart was in it.  I was focused on other things, good things mind you, mostly ministry and creating an income for my family, but nonetheless my mind was elsewhere, and we all know where are thoughts are there is our heart.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:21

I am grateful for how quickly things can change, for the fact that I can set my mind to changing and I can do it. For the fact that I can call on friends to pray, they do so and I feel their prayers. My heart and my mind and my treasure are in a much different place than they were a few weeks ago and for that I am grateful.

Thank you Lord for being a God of second, third and fourth chances and thank you for allowing me to do. . . whatever I set my mind on.

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

An Honest Look

I have to be honest.  If there were any New Year’s Resolution that I needed to adopt, it would be to spend less time online.  Yes, I know I work from home and that involves being online quite a bit, but I know if I were honest with myself that if I spent 2-4 hrs of focused work time I could get way more done.  Also, I keep feeling God telling me, nudging me to re-prioritize and saying to me “Alyssa, put first things first.” Meaning put being a wife and mom before my work, which I must admit I don’t do all of the time because of the money. I worry about the money that I could be bringing in.

And, as we all know money involves work, so that’s when my work is put first, because money is what pays the bills.  Then, there is this belief and this knowledge deep inside of me that knows, money is not your provider, God is your provider dear child.  So, why can’t I just follow that and instead focus on my family, always?

In this new year this is my personal goal.  FOCUS on my FAMILY.  Focus on my home, my kids and my husband, not necessarily in that order.  This means I must keep my computer and work time down to 4 hours.  Any ideas how I can make this easier?  I’d love to hear from you!

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