Prioritizing

I have been so far behind on blogging and just about everything else in my life right now! Sometimes I feel like I am in a Nascar race and I am spinning out of control! I have felt that way since I had Jaxon, life has just gotten crazy but it’s worth it, it really is. I just wish I had more hands during the day to do all that I need to do. I finally got caught up on my blog tonight, 12 posts to be exact, so if you want to read them all you will have to hit the previous post button :) :)! I hate getting behind on my blog because it’s my life and my journal and it can’t be out of order and the dates have to be really close to when the picture was actually taken etc etc. I know I am just crazy! So much has gone on this last little while, so much sadness and heartache in so many people’s lives, I just don’t understand some days. I know I have always been one who feels what someone else is feeling and in some ways that is good and some ways it’s bad. It sure takes a lot out of me, but it sure makes me stop and appreciate my life around me. I know we all have certain trials that we have to go through, some are harder than others, it’s just life, that is the way it is suppose to be, but that does not make it easy. I hate sad things and I hate watching friends and family members go through sad things, I always want to fix it but I can’t! This is just my little mind spinning around in circles this week. Anyway so the reason I was making this post was because Julie Beck came and spoke at BYU Idaho and one of the things she spoke on was prioritizing our lives. She has spoke on this before, in fact I have heard it multiple times but just never wrote it down and now I am going to.

 

She gave three categories

1. Essential Things

These are the things we must take care of for our Eternal Life

Prayer, Church, Temple, Reading and Understanding the Scriptures, Having a relationship with our Heavenly Father, Family Home Evening, etc

2. Necessary Things

These are the things we need to do to maintain our homes and families

Becoming self reliant, earning money or managing money, keeping our homes clean, cooking meals, etc

3. Nice to Do Things

This is self explanatory, but the important thing to realize about this category is that if we make this category our #1 priority, we will waste time and lose power to be a force for good or to achieve the goals we want to reach.

 

So she encouraged everyone to make their own list of the three categories.

My Essential Things list: scripture study (both personal and with my family), prayer (personal and with my family), Family Home Evening, Temple, Fasting, Church, Visiting Teaching

My Necessary Things list: Keeping the house organized and clean, staying caught up on my grocery shopping, planning meals ahead of time, write out bills, helping kids with school work, loving children and husband.

My Nice to Do list: Blogging, talking on the phone, scrapbooking, exercising, watching movies, reading, baking, extra sleeping

 

I find it helpful to be reminded of what needs to come first in my life. I think it is crazy that I can make sure the kids get to school, dance and piano on time, but do I make sure that every day at a certain time I am reading and teaching them about the scriptures? I do pretty good at it, but not all the time and not at a certain time. I think it is difficult to do the essential things first, but they bring the greatest rewards and the greatest peace knowing that they are done. Julie Beck said that once she started prioritizing this way, she found more time to get to her “Nice to Do” list! I am going to try really hard to start this little list thing and see if it helps.

 

Another thing Julie Beck talked about was being a Mother and what an important calling that was. We should not take our calling as a Mother lightly. If anything in our lives is taking the place of being a Mother it is wrong. When we die we will not be called school teacher, piano teacher, nurse, dancer, etc we will be called Mother. Our main and only purpose is to be a Mother. I thought that was just really cool and important to me. We are so blessed to be Mothers, I know women who have never been able to be Mothers and some who have literally gone through the worst things to become a Mother. I am so grateful to be called a Mother and that I have never felt in my heart that I didn’t want to be a Mother, I am so blessed.