Spending Time

What do I spend my time doing? At the end of the day when I look back at what I accomplished - did I actually accomplish anything?

I've been feeling convicted recently about making sure that I spend my time doing things with eternal significance rather than the useless things I usually spend my time doing. Before I get any further into this I should say that I don't think that we have to shun all forms of relaxation from our lives. If watching an hour of TV at night or reading a (good) novel helps a person to relax at night before they go to bed then maybe that event has a useful place in that person's day. My point is not to try to eliminate these things entirely from our lives. What I'm struggling with is how to put as many worthwhile things in my life so that I'm functioning at the highest level I can for His glory while not burning myself out in the process.

Burning myself out is an issue I've struggled with a lot in 2010 and I think a lot of my problems stem from the fact that I rely on myself rather than relying on God. I could write an entire post about that topic.

As for deciding what's worthwhile and what's not, even that can be complicated. Fellowship with other believers is important. At what point does it become more than useful fellowship and just time wasted with no greater purpose? Having fun with friends isn't a bad thing. Where's the balance?

And then things like the normal tasks we have to accomplish everyday in order to our lives to function. Those have a place in our lives and we should do everything in our lives to the best of our abilities and for the glory of God. Part of life is work. There are many verses in the Bible that talk about diligence in working and being a good worker. I don't think there's any doubt that we're supposed to do our jobs to the best of our abilities. Do I go into work every morning with the goal of doing the best that I can that day?

Then we have the things like dishes, laundry, grocery shopping. Some of these tasks are more enjoyable for me than others. I suppose every person is different. Regardless, these things have to get done. These are part of our "work" even if we don't get a paycheck for performing these tasks. Do I do these tasks to the best of my ability? Do I even do these tasks? How long has that pile of dishes been sitting in my sink?
How is God going to use me for bigger tasks if I can't even complete the simple tasks that I already have in my life?

My goal right now is to change my attitude at work. More importantly, I want to become diligent and taking care of the simple tasks in my life like keeping up on the dishes and housework. These really are basic things in life. I should be able to handle them. I have a feeling it'll be a process with lots of failures and procrastination. It'll be good practice for when I ask God to help me to do bigger things.

Side note: For anyone out there reading this, if you haven't read "Do Hard Things" by Alex and Brett Harris, you should. Doesn't matter how old you are.

Convictions can be a powerful thing. The ability to respond to those convictions and pursue with diligence can be a hard thing to do.

Luckily, God can enable us to do hard things.

My Entrance Into Couponing Madness

I'm new to the whole world of couponing and the amazing deals that are out there to be had. I always used to look on coupons as great, but not really worth it. I'd see coupons for 50 cents off something I usually bought so I'd set it aside. Usually, I forgot about the coupon and never saw it again until weeks later when I was cleaning off the counter.

Recently, I discovered the HUGE assortment of online couponing sites. It first started when I ran across Money Saving Mom because she had posted a link to a $1 coupon for Campbell's soup. I eat the microwavable bowls for lunch at work all the time so when I saw a link somewhere for $1 off I figured, why not? As it turns out, the $2.99 soup was on sale at Fry's for $1. I stood there in the soup aisle somewhat bewildered because I wondered if the coupon would ever work if the item was going to end up being free. I figured it couldn't hurt to try and I needed the soup anyway so I put a few cans in my cart and proceeded to checkout. Low and behold, the coupon did work! My first ever coupon freebie!

I walked out of Fry's that night with a coupon high. I'm a sucker for a good deal. I ended up printing off two more copies of the coupon and used them before the sale on the soup ended the next week. Three free cans of soup!

I then started poking around Money Saving Mom again to see what other coupons she might have posted links to. I realized that she had posts that outline which items are on sale at a given store and what coupons match up with those items. That's when I started to realize that the real trick was finding store coupons/sales and combining them with manufacturer coupons! Basically, keep creating situations like the soup one above! And there are literally hundreds of blogs devoted to helping you do just that. I've found one specifically devoted to Target (Totally Target) that I love. I also find that googling "*store name* *date* deals" always brings up tons of blog posts that outline the good deals for that week. Sometimes one blog catches something that another doesn't.

And that my friends, is how my couponing addiction started.