BUSY OR NOT, YOU ARE VALUABLE

I visited the coziest little bookstore last week while on vacation. It's on Route 6 between Hawley and White Mills in Pennsylvania. Barbara's Books isn't spacious, but it's special. It had that old book smell, which I love. In the back of the store was a small antique shop, and the place even came complete with a friendly, leisure-loving cat. I never paid for a book while a live cat stretched out on the counter, but it added to the charm of the place.

As I searched the aisles of books for my latest treasure, I wondered which subject would be the biggest blessing to me. I don't read many books for entertainment. I want to get something out of a book, something I can learn that will enrich my life. When I spotted a book titled, "Finding More Time In Your Life," I gave it more than a second glance. Time management is something I've struggled with all my life.

While scanning the book's pages, one profound sentence captured my attention: "Have you ever experienced the pain of wanting to do something, knowing it is the best thing to do, and then falling short?" Oh yes! That's me. Almost every day I feel that pain. Then another sentence sealed the deal: "Many people feel that everyone else in the world is on top of their time and has everything focused, organized, and scheduled. This is not true."

Whenever I feel like a book is talking directly to me, I have to have it. Dru Scott Decker struck a nerve with just those two sentences. First she described exactly how I'm feeling and then she told me I'm not alone. Why wouldn't I want to read more?

I would guess that 9 out of 10 people have time management issues. No matter how busy I am, I always feel that I'm not doing enough. Where does that come from? I haven't finished the book yet, but I'm hoping to get some answers. What I have learned is that we can't do everything perfectly and putting such high standards on ourselves only sets us up for a load of guilt.

I remember saying in an earlier blog that everything we do should be done in excellence. Maybe I should rephrase that: We should put our best effort into almost everything we do. To do it all and do it all perfectly is hardly possible. And at times, we may need to settle for less than our best. Feeling guilty about less than perfect performance gets you nowhere.

I don't know when it happened, but somewhere along the way, busyness has become the standard people use to measure their worth as human beings. I'll close by quoting the book directly because I couldn't possibly say it any better: "Personal worth does not depend upon what you do. You have value as a human being regardless of your activities. The prestige or economic value of your work has no bearing on your worth or your right to human dignity."

Put that on a plaque and hang it. The world needs to know.

THE LIFE ON WINGS

I got home from Ocean City Maryland a few hours ago. Surprisingly, I'm wide awake. The trip was not something I was planning. My sister called on a whim and we packed our bags and headed south. My mom went along. We try to go somewhere together every year.

When we got on the beach early Saturday morning, the lady who rented us an umbrella and beach chairs said, "This is the first nice day we've had here in a long time. You're lucky to have chosen this weekend." We knew that luck had nothing to do with it. We prayed for good weather. We also asked God to help us get there and back safely and without getting lost.  That prayer was also answered and it wasn't always the driver who made the right decisions.

Between the three of us, we noticed the right exits, reminded each other about speed limits, and even prevented an accident or two. We worked together and God gave each of us a keen eye to catch what the other missed. It was one of the most pleasant vacation drives I've been on.  When I took the wheel on the way home, we reached a point where I had to turn either right or left and no one knew which lane I should take. I felt the urge to go left and then I saw a sign for Lancaster that required a left turn. That nudging to go left was God speaking to me. That's the power of prayer.

If you're not a person who prays, you might be shaking your head about now and thinking I'm crazy. Unless you can prove to me that God doesn't exist, maybe you're the one who's crazy for not using the power of prayer to enrich your own life. The bible tells us that God cares about every detail of our lives. You can pray about anything, no matter how small the request. Recently the ladies in my bible study prayed for Rosie O'Donnell to be removed from her position on The View, a TV talk show. Within two weeks of us saying that prayer, it was announced that Rosie would be leaving the show. We felt her opinions were too critical and filled with hatred. God must have agreed. He heard our prayer and granted our request.

In The Christian's Secret to a Happy Life, The author compares faith and prayer to a "life on wings." When you pray, you can fly above your worldly problems and be free from worry, fear, and every negative emotion. Prayer gives you peace and freedom. You fly up and over every hurdle. Nothing shakes you because you know God is in control. It's the way God meant for us to live. But so many people miss out on knowing the power of prayer. They are alone with their daily struggles. Every day they take on the world without God's help and they end up frustrated, angry, and exhausted.

There is a better way to live. If you don't believe it, try it. You'll become a believer when you see your list of answered prayers begin to grow. Sometimes God doesn't answer prayer in the way you would like, but when you look back on how he answered the prayer, His way is always better than your original request. He finds a way to give you what you need, which is more important than what you want.

I'm still learning how to live life on wings. I haven't mastered it, but there's one thing I know for sure: I'll never go back to a life without prayer. Why walk when you can fly?