Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Busyness Next to Godliness?


I have been incredibly busy the past couple of weeks with things at work like training opps in the coming year, first run through of budget, our 360 conference in September and lots of speaking and training. It has been a very busy two weeks and the next four weeks are pretty crazy as well. I am working hard to remember that "busyness is not next to godliness".

So how is it that busyness takes over my life? Poor planning sounds like an indictment on me, but actually is probably the closest to the truth. I understand that there are seasons that can bring about more busy, but trying to anticipate the unexpected is something I have failed miserably at recently. I realize that I have not allowed for much margin in my life and in that, I have planned poorly.

I will say that I am not trying to complain that I am "busier" than anyone else, but I think for the most part, ALL of us are too busy.  I find myself running from one thing to the next, prepping for talks/budgets/work at the last minute. Some of it is controlled by others' schedule, and I am aware of that, but I am in control of the margins that I create or eradicate in my life.

I ran across this from Eugene Peterson as I was packing up my office (again) to move this next week to another part of the building (#8 or 9 in the 20 years I have been here). No, I am not bitter, just a little tired of packing/unpacking & remembering what floor to get off of the elevator. I digress. Here is what Peterson reminded me of in my busyness -
I am busy because I am vain. I consider myself to be too important to pass on some things.
I am busy because I am lazy. I let others decide what I will do instead of calling the shots on what is important.

I do not like polarizing statements like the one above because it causes me to come to grips with truth and reality. I like landing somewhere in the middle. Consider me Switzerland (some of you will get that reference).

I am committing to do these things -
Trust Him to find my true worth and value - Vanity sucks the life out of me.
Take charge of the margins I can control. - I am not letting others fill up my marginal time because I am too lazy to make the right decisions about my time.

With all that said, I climb on a plane tonight and return on Thurs. I did unpack a training trip for this weekend though. Not because I really wanted to but because I needed to.

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Looks Like We are Expecting . . . a son-in-law

And thankfully not a baby! but we are definitely adding to our family. This morning about 930ish, Mark proposed to Shelbi on our front door step. He called me last week, we set up a Skype call for earlier this week since I have been traveling a lot, and we had a great conversation via Skype on Monday. He asked for our blessing and permission to ask Shelbi to marry him and we granted him that honor.

There are a lot of things that come flooding to my mind as I think about what has transpired and what will soon transpire as we prepare for a wedding, but the purpose of this post is to let you know that we are extremely excited about Mark and Shelbi being engaged and probably soon to be married. (I really can't say much about them wanting to get married soon since Sondra and I were engaged only about 6 months before we married.)

I do want to take a minute and let you know Mark from my perspective. The motto at our house is and has been, "boys are bad" and as they girls have gotten older I added the phrase, "but young men are okay.." I want to say that Mark is a young man that obviously loves Christ and our daughter. Here are a few things he has done to show what his true character is:

1. He called me late '09 to ask permission to date Shelbi. Sondra and I granted him permission with two stipulations 1. that he would continue to help Shelbi become more like Christ; and 2. that he would help her continue to live a life of purity in all aspects of her life. He agreed and the dating commenced.
2. He has always honored our position as Shelbi's parents.
3. He has always treated Shelbi, Morgan, Sondra and me with the utmost respect.
4. He won Morgan over after a few months of being around Shelbi. That is a very strong endorsement when Morgan gives anyone the okay (and I do not mean that sarcastically or lightly). Morgan is a very good judge of character and has great discernment. She knew that Mark was probably more than just a guy that Shelbi was hanging with and she wanted to be sure he was going to treat her with honor and respect.

There are many other things he has done but that will suffice for now. Any young men out there wanting to understand what it means to honor and respect a young lady and her parents and family, watch Mark Ellison. His parents and others in his life have taught him well.

One other thing - pray that we hit the lottery (for you purists, no, we don't play the lottery.) I hear weddings aren't cheap.