I am consistently examining my schedule these days.  I get so tired of hearing, “I’m so busy.”  I get so tired of saying, “I’m so busy.”  The reality, most of us are busy, but it is a choice.  I have no problem being busy, in fact, being busy is often life-giving.  However, I want to keep the first thing first in my life.  I prioritize my time with the Lord, my time with my family and my time to get my job done.  However, all three of those top priorities are not always put into a nice little box with black & white boundaries.

Today’s Top 5 examines the things I am prioritizing outside the top three… Whether or not I like these things doesn’t matter, the criteria being, these are the things I am doing outside of my top three priorities. These are the things I fill in my margins with.

Without further ado, the list.

Five: TV. Down time in the evening is nice and doubles often as “at home date” time with Elisabeth.  24, Idol, Survivor and Amazing Race are our Margin-Filling TV shows of choice.

Four: Blog. Yep, this very thing is a margin-filler.  As you can see, I’ve been a little less consistent with it, which means less margin in this season of my life.

Three: Young Life. Every Monday I have the honor of coming alongside teens in a ministry setting where the Gospel is proclaimed.  Many of these teens (most) do not know Jesus.

Two: Networking Projects.  This borders on “work.” However, I am a networker and I enjoy relationships and I enjoy helping others.  I have a few people in my life who are extremely generous with their finances.  I love watching how they steward well and bless others.  I may not be in the position with my finances to do that, however I desire to be wise with my time, talent and treasures.  Right now, I have been able to be generous with some talents.  It is a joy to come alongside other Youth Leaders and help them discover areas of ministry or speak into specific areas of their ministry.  Facebook, email, texting and coffee chats seem to be the practical margin-filler in this category.

One: Biking. I don’t always enjoy the exercise side of my life, however, I know I need it and ultimately I don’t feel good without it.  My goal is to get three or four solid (30 minutes or more) rides in per week.  Interesting enough, if I am just biking and not changing my eating habits I still put on weight… What happened to the metabolism of my youth?

Time to get back to the real priorities in my life, margin-time closed.  What are your margin fillers?

Grace,
Brian