When I wake up in the morning I start to plan the day. I say good morning to God, cuddle hubby and organise my thoughts. I plan my agenda for the day, considering what is flexible and what is set in concrete. Sounds ideal, right?
And. Then. I. Log. On…: Facebook, forums, blogs, etc. And it isn’t so much the amount of time that I spend online. It used to be, too much time online has often been a struggle of mine but not in recent years. The problem with it is that…
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My Agenda Changes
I am quick to put off the laundry for another day because I am chasing bunny trails that I’ve stumbled across online. I’ll research and ponder a THM or homeschooling question to help someone and this pondering can take a few hours or all day. In the meanwhile, my heart is everywhere else but directed toward my home, my family or what was my agenda.
I’ve always believed that we do best when we bloom where we are planted. That we have been put on earth in this time, in this place to glorify God… that whatever we do we should work at it wholeheartedly as if directly working for the Lord. And God put me here in 2014, with this man and this mish-mash of children. This is where I’ve been planted and should be blooming. That’s not to say I should never venture outside my door, or never develop interests, serve others, work, play or anything else. Rather that this ground is my first priority. For me, homemaking is the God-given domain of womanly authourity. It is not only my responsibility, but it has been and still is my place of influence and authourity. Visiting (online or IRL), studying, researching, supporting, helping and socialising are all necessary and valuable aspects of daily life but they shouldn’t be my first priority nor happen at the expense of my family or home.
And yet so often I have allowed the Internet to dictate my thoughts, my actions, my prayer life, my study, my time… I have allowed my daily rhythm to be changed, I have shifted my focus.
Moreover, as they go about from house to house, they learn to be idlers, and not only idlers, but gossips and busybodies, saying what they should not say and talking of things they should not mention.
1 Timothy 5:13
I’ve written before about daily quiet times. And no, before you click out of this page I’m not going to suggest that everyone should be up at 5am having a daily quiet time with God. I have been there and done that. I think that lifestyle suits a certain personality (maybe type A?) but it certainly isn’t easy to maintain with a large family who has a lot of emotional happenings, illness, depression or when one simply isn’t a morning person! Of course I dedicate my day to God upon waking – just like I cuddle my husband and think about the day, God is always present and acknowledged. How can He not be? But if I’m to give him the best of me, of my time and head space then it isn’t going to be the mornings. I used to be a morning person but that changed. Age, depression, adrenal fatigue, busyness, weariness may account for it but I am definitely not a morning person anymore. And I think He is okay with that.
Different Seasons
I’m also in a different season of life now. I’m not actively homeschooling as Falcon is 17yo and doing the bulk of his work independently. I am working part time, raising a toddler and well, life is completely different to what it was 5 years ago! I’m out and about more but consequently I am not online much at all. And I like it! I’ve noticed this particularly in this new season of life because I can see how much it affected me and my homeschooling life many years ago. There are so many things that I wouldn’t do differently if I had opportunity for a re-do… but this is an aspect I would love to do over again – no Internet until after the ‘must-do’s’ of my daily agenda have been tended to. Rather than decry the evils of the Internet and social media and how we should avoid it, I now schedule it. This also helps me to live more fully present in the moment as I’m not checking FB on the phone all the time.
Of course life looks different depending upon the season we are in. I loved being a homeschooling mum. Our choice allowed me to learn, grow and develop in so many areas, even being based at home and with children all day. I’m not suggesting that I should have never been online or had personal interests or friends. Hehee, that would be quite silly. It has been beneficial for me that I continued to learn new skills and gain knowledge whilst homeschooling. Now that my children are older I have many (far too many) interests and passions to pursue. Thankfully, my husband and I both agreed that continuing to develop spiritually, intellectually and socially was of great importance. However, these areas of growth shouldn’t come at the expense of a clean, tidy (level of tidiness varies for everyone) home where children are trained in character, nourished emotionally and physically and the hubby is loved and respected beyond a shadow of doubt. Simply doing my main priorities FIRST before I check online keeps my eyes on my agenda. Once I check social media, my agenda changes and becomes something else. All good, noble things but it still takes me away from my domain.
So I would have younger widows marry, bear children, manage their households, and give the adversary no occasion for slander.
~ 1 Timothy 5:14
How about you?
Have you found scheduling Internet time to be beneficial? Have you found that being online early changes your daily agenda? Or maybe you have a tip to share?
I tend to log on as soon as I get up, as my teens are already doing their own thing or still asleep. This is a habit I really need to change as I am sometimes still sitting here in my pajamas at morning tea time. I have made some changes, but I have also realised it is a heart attitude. I can waste time just as easily reading a book or wasting time fiddling with something non essential. I thought about giving up social media, but realised it would be counter productive. As silly as someone of my parents generation deciding to give up the telephone. what I need is some self discipline 🙂
Too true Jenny… it can be a book, the newspaper – anything. Whatever we let to take control of our thoughts and thus change our schedule – our heart schedule and our time schedule. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
They say “What you wake up to in the morning dictates the rest of your day.’ Yep, there’s a lot of that in all of us. It’s the luxuries of life we have which tempt us to put off the most important wake up call in the morning- fellowship with the lover of our souls….Struggling here too Susan.
Thanks for being so humble. I have learned much from you today. xxxx
Susan this is such an important issue for so many of us. I really believe in some ways it’s the elephant in the cyber room. All of us commenting furiously looking for something of interest online and procrastinating from the things that really matter IRL. Unfortunately we can’t get our time back.
Very timely for me (thanks for linking this on FB today, Michelle)! I have periods where I am able to keep internet stuff balanced and in it’s place and where it doesn’t take over my agenda. But it doesn’t seem to last. I can see I need to figure out what causes me to fall off the rails…. more times than I’d like to admit. :/