Time Management for Your Family
Email 1
Subject line: Managing the Time Monster
Copy/Paste the following email
Parents,
Most families today will tell you they’re too overextended, too busy, feel like they’re running a rate race; yet we’ve all been given a gift from God, 24 hours in a day. If you’re like me you’ve often wondered why in the world God only put 24 in there! Each of us has the same amount of time each day, but we all get to choose how we use it.
This month we want to help you discover HOW to manage your family’s time well. Take a moment to watch the following video to see how to manage the time monster:
http://vimeo.com/parentministry/review/92234304/2643c29f03
We encourage you to take the time and really evaluate the 24 hours God has given your family. How exactly are you using the time given to you?
In the next couple weeks you’ll receive a second email from us that will include some steps your family can take to tame the time monster.
Thanks,
Children’s Pastor
Email 2
Subject line: Managing the Time Monster with my Family
Parents,
A ton of research associated with time management emphasizes setting goals so that you know where to invest your time most. An incredible resource that will help you identify family goals in a step by step process is “The 3 Big Questions for a Frantic Family.” When we know what is most important to us it helps guide the use of our time.
Here are some very practical tools to help your family move from frantic hurriedness to calm predictability:
- Learn the power of NO. We all want our children to be great, and often it’s at the expense of family time. In an effort to make our children the BEST at something, we’ll over invest our time toward that goal.
- Stop trying to do it all and determine priorities. If eating family dinners together 3 nights per week is a goal, someone may have to say no to another opportunity to assure that happens.
- Be very intentional with the time you do have. Steer clear of cruising facebook or twitter without setting some time constraints on yourself.
- Give up on the idea of perfectionism and the idea that you can do it all.
- Make sure everyone in the house is sharing responsibility, that everyone has certain jobs/tasks.
- Think ahead and plan well/organize your time
The Bible has a lot to say about our use of time. There are many verses that lead me to believe
God desperately wants us to understand how BREIF life is. Psalm 39:4-5 says,
“O Lord, make me know my end
and what is the measure of my days;
let me know how fleeting I am!
Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths,
and my lifetime is as nothing before you.
Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath!
Each moment of our families’ lives are measured out, and God alone knows the number of them. We each have the ability to choose how we use the ones we have by living in the present, being very intentional with the time we do have, and loyally following through with the goals we set as a family.
Thanks,
Children’s Pastor
Some of my favorite memories growing up as a kid are Saturdays that our family spent together at my Grandparent’s farm. Nothing planned, just a full day playing with my cousins on the farm. Those days were filled with exploration, adventure and a few cuts and scrapes! Building forts made out of hay, riding 4 wheelers, and fishing in the pod had our full attention every visit we made to the farm. When I think back about those days what was astounding was that as a kid one day felt like a week on the farm. Each of those days seemed so long and filled with so much wonder. As I grew up those experiences quickly diminished, as time seemed to move faster and faster year after year. Now as a parent it’s like time is suddenly moving at warp speed. It seems like when we start the first day of a new school year with my girls I blink and we are prepping for summer break. I look at our family calendar and it’s packed with activities, practices, and meetings. My kid’s schedules look much the same. We’re surrounded by time saving conveniences that have allowed us to live at a pace that is exhausting and many times makes us miss spending real time with the people we love.
It almost feels like time is a fast paced monster that we can’t seems to capture or control. Time can seem like Godzilla crashing through our lives. This month in our online parenting class we want to tackle the time monster and see if we can discover a better pace for our families. It’s been said that busyness is the enemy of marriage, but I believe it’s the enemy of the family as well. A strong family identity helps a child develop a healthy and strong self-identity. How we manage time has a direct correlation to our ability to be effective as parents because how we leverage time reveals what we believe is important. The way we manage time reveals our priorities.
Let me give you some good news. This month we are going to give you some hope when it comes to controlling the monster that time has become in our lives. God knew we would struggle with this issue so from the very beginning of creation we see God model the importance of managing the blessing of time. In the book of Genesis we see God actually take time to rest. Look at this…
Genesis 2:1-3 (NLT)
So the creation of the heavens and the earth and everything in them was completed.
On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation.
God had been busy. God had just created the universe. God has just invested 6 days of time creating and then God stops and rests. God actually took time to rest, process, and evaluate what he done. This is incredible because God was intentional with his time. God did not get ahead on His next project; He was fully present in this moment of creation and took time to rest.
The first critical step to managing time more effectively is to decide to be intentional about it and realize that when you manage time well you actually reveal how grateful you are for time. We are all given the same 24 hours in a day. The difference between people who accomplish great things, like being a great parent, those who just get by is that they recognize and leverage the time they have been given. When we decide to be intentional about time and choose to manage our families time, we have a better shot of living in the present verses always dreaming about that mythical some day when we will give to time to what matters most. When we steward the time we have been given we actually worship God because we are giving focus to what matters most rather that what screams the loudest for our attention.
We all have too little time and too much to do. We are all stretched thin but we need to remember that what gets most of your time is what is most important to us. We complain about not having enough time for our families, but we aren’t willing to truly evaluate HOW we use the 24 hours God gives us each day. This week we want you to take a step toward getting control of the time monster in your house and decide to be intentional about the use of time in your home. Let’s choose to be intentional and see what can happen we say yes to the most important things and no to things that are good but are acting as time detours.
This week you have one goal. Take one day and log how you spend your time to gauge what receives most of your time. Don’t freak out when you see the results. This process is just to inform us so we can start being more intentional with time in our families.
In a few days we will send you part 2 of this online parenting class and walk through some keys to help your family move from frantic to focused! Time is a gift from God so let’s use it well this month.
Weekly tweets from you to parents:
TIP: Choose a hashtag for your tweets and use it consistently. That will tell twitter to store a list of your tweets in one place for later reference.
- TWEET #1-How we leverage time reveals what is most important to us. #urchurchparentministry
- TWEET #2-Busyness is the enemy of marriage and family. #urchurchparentministry
- TWEET #3-Let’s be good stewards of time, worshipping God through our wise use of time. To live intentionally, live fully in the present, not always planning for the future. #urchurchparentministry
- TWEET #4-Ephesians 5:15-16 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time. #urchurchparentministry
- TWEET #5-Look at the creation story in Genesis 2. God was very intentional with His time. #urchurchparentministry
- TWEET #6-Children are a blessing from the Lord, take time to enjoy them. #urchurchparentministry
- TWEET #7-Check out the book, 3 Big Questions for a Frantic Family #urchurchparentministry
- TWEET #8-When you manage time well, you reveal how grateful you are for time. #urchurchparentministry
- TWEET #9-Psalm 90:12 Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom. #urchurchparentminstry
- TWEET #10-Time is a gift from God, so let’s use it well. #urchurchparentministry