Five Minute Friday: The dream child of Gypsy Mama.  We write for 5 minutes and either stop…or if we’re on a roll, let everyone know when the 5 minutes ended. Then we link to the 5 minute Friday page on her blog and write an encouraging note to the person ahead of us.  Join us!

The prompt for this week is GIFT.

GO

photo: © Funniefarm5 | Dreamstime.com

I’ve been thinking about what a gift time is…and how often I take it for granted.  This month I have had extra time crunches hounding me…sometimes because I didn’t use my time well the first time around.  I ended up with two deadlines on top of each other and me…stressed beyond belief!

One deadline was for my nursing license renewal, due in April 1, 2012.  I have known it for two years.  I kept putting off taking the course, one that I could take online and usually try to finish long before the deadline!  The time got away from me this year.  My delayed deadline was the end of February.  I didn’t get it done.

I already had a garage sale on the calendar for the end of March.  I needed to get ready for that.  So the deadlines hounded me until a low census at work caused me to be cancelled and I was able to finish the course.  It was all like a set of dominoes.  Each delayed deadline added stress to the next one.  That has been the story of my last four years.  (STOP)

I feel like I am in a race that I can’t finish.  There is always a new deadline on top of an old one colliding with the moments of my everyday life, my ability to sleep…or not and my ability to even notice people around me.  Many who need help way more than I do!  I’m not sure whether to slow down or speed up.  Whether to shut out the world and focus in on myself (something I don’t enjoy in terms of a life style)…but may need to consider on a temporary basis.

It feels good to be “finishing” these jobs that have been hanging over my head like a Damocles’ sword.  I will feel like a 50 pound weight is off my shoulders tomorrow when we drop off our garage sale left-overs at Goodwill or Salvation Army.  It will be nice to have a nearly empty garage with just a few boxes left.

It will be nice to have empty spots in the closets and drawers.  I’ve already enjoyed the space in my bedroom where I used to have boxes of stuff that wasn’t put away.  Now I have lots of empty boxes.  I have found things I thought were lost.  I am planning some fun short term projects.

But I’m realizing that time is a gift.  I don’t always manage that gift well.  I will continue on the journey of grace with God’s help, realizing that I am His beloved daughter in Christ.  I am not an orphan, or even a spiritual foster child who must desperately try to please a Father who might send her back if my behavior isn’t pleasing to Him.  I am adopted as His beloved daughter.  He takes delight in me.

If you are in Christ, the same goes for you.  That is a key message of my blog.  Despite your flaws, He loves and delights in you and me.  We don’t need to struggle under the burden of our failures.  We need to repent of the sinful aspects of our failures, change and move on.  It is a continuing process of growth, but in it all, our Father loves us.  We will not be disowned.

Enjoy the gift of time God has given you.  Enjoy the relationships, the work, the joys, the sorrows, the ministry, the serving others do for you as well as the serving you do for them.  Enjoy the complete tapestry that God is making of your life.  It is a gift…for awhile.  Then comes eternity.  

There won’t be clocks in heaven!