Putting Order in our Lives

I finally arranged my books. I always wanted to categorize my books and put them in neat and orderly shelves. In that way I can easily locate a specific book when I need it for reference. But it wasn't an easy task. I had to take all the books out from the its old storage, dusted 'em off a bit, sneezed a lot, moved a cabinet to the next room, took the trash out, sorted out the books, and finally arranged them by size and topic. Whew!

It's not easy to put things in order. Specially if done at one time. The same with our lives, it's not easy to put it in order. There are things we have to take out, sort out, and arrange.

We have to take out the trash in our lives. Trash like bad habits of procrastination, laziness, and our vices. These are things that hinder our progress. They are causes of clutter in our lives and we have a hard time changing or getting rid of them because we have become comfortable of our bad habits. The effects of this are debts, compromised integrity, and low self worth. As soon as we straighten up and take out the trash, it will be easier to sort things out. We have to know how to give time to the different roles we have in our lives. We have our roles in the family, business, service, and friends, to name a few. We are to give ample time to each. The challenge is not to balance them, but to be able to give our best in each. Sometimes our time with family is overlapped with our work or service. We get it all mixed up. We can't determine what's family time, work time, service time, or friends' time. It is a matter of proper planning and knowing when to say "no" so we can say "yes" to those that need our time. Arranging is about prioritizing. There will be times when two important things come at the same schedule. If we know our priorities, guided by our core values and personal mission statement, a clear decision can be made. We are able to arrange our lives and put it in order.

Putting our lives in order cannot be a one time process. We are to watch out for patterns of laziness and procrastination. When we have finally put our lives in order, but then later we slack off, in time we will be back in our old mess. Let us then continually live out the process of taking out the trash, sorting out, and arranging our lives. With God's strength we are able to overcome our bad habits and live a life that is pleasing to Him.

"...since he is not the God of disorder but of peace (1 Corinthians 14:33)."