A couple of years ago I listened to a podcast by Pastor Matt Chandler. He talked all about Margin, and It was very significant to me, and a lesson that I really took in. I am constantly living without margin.
This morning I woke up to a house that is a total disaster. I thought to myself, “How the heck did this happen?” Well, I know how it happened. It happened because nothing was ever really clean before, I was just barely maintaining- doing only what was absolutely necessary for us to move around and function. I had no margin in my home, and if anything were to happen (like yesterday we were gone most of the day, and the day before that I didn’t feel well) then all of the sudden I am in disaster, can’t breathe there is so much mess zone. I mean, when you have to wash a dish to eat, and wash a shirt to get dressed, things aren’t okay.
Money is another huge area of need for margin. I mean, its so easy to not save, and spend everything you have, and then when that happens you totally always have the “the car just broke down, or my daughter just grew two shoe sizes in one month and needs new shoes” unexpected sort of expenses.
Or how about Spiritual margin? Sometimes, I will not have spent any time with the Lord, and then something really hard hits, and I struggle with pouring out my heart to the Lord, because I feel like I have to “catch up” first. I usually do “catch up” and for the most part, I think the really hard thing happened to draw me closer to Him (at least that’s one reason). It is SO nice though, when something does hit, and I have margin in my relationship with God, where we are already having a never.ending.conversation and I can just jump in and be held by Him.
Or, what about your marriage? There might be a week that goes by that I don’t connect so well with my husband, or we are just really busy, and don’t make time for each other. Then- we will have one of those oh.so.normal little arguments, but it will turn into a huge fight, because we aren’t connected, we have no margin.
Sometimes this lack of margin is forced on you, and for us it always seems like once we get one area of life to have margin, another area lacks it, but I think its worth the effort to not just get done what needs to be done, but to do more then needs to be done, so you have margin, and you can take a hit without falling apart.
You can apply this “rule of margin” to most things in life. Well, I’m going to try and dig myself out of my whole, and create some “bumpers” for my life.
What areas in your life needs some margin?
Recently I’ve noticed something new about myself- it’s that I value marriage above everything else other than my relationship with God. It’s not that this is necessarily a new idea or anything, but I’m realizing that not only do I hold marriage in high value, but it is also a passion of mine. I value my own marriage, but I also value the marriage of those around me, and my heart is absolutely devastated when I hear about one falling apart.
This passion of mine sometimes leads to some social awkwardness on my part. I’m constantly asking my married friends how their marriages are doing, I hate chit chat so I’ll jump right into questions like “Are you having date nights?” and I total even ask them about their sex life. Yes, it might make me a little weird, but I seriously have such a heart for them, and their marriages, and the families that they are building. I’ve seen how easy it is to fall out of love, and let go of your vows and commitment, and how it often happens to the people you thought would be together forever, or the people who said to themselves “that could never happen to me”.
I’m not really sure what the Lord has planned for me as for as my passion for marriage, or who He might use me to help in my awkwardness, but I feel like I love marriage (in a small way)- the way that Jesus does, and I can see Him crying and devastated when the covenant He created is destroyed, and I can see Him rejoicing and celebrating with us when we connect to one another and together with Him.
Recently I read the story of Sarah Markley. It touched my heart, as I read her story about God’s redemptive power and grace, as He restored her marriage after her affair. It’s a beautiful and heart wrenching story, and I hope you read it, and learn from her like I did, and go and love on your husband a little more today. 
Oh, and just for fun, I uploaded my wedding photos to Flickr, you can see them on my Flickr page here
Growing up in Arizona, Fall was never really a season we experienced. The leaves on the palm trees in my backyard didn’t turn vibrant colors of gold and red and then fall off. I was still wearing flip-flops and shorts in October, and we still had the AC on in the house. We had pumpkins of course, but mainly from our local grocery store. Ever since moving to the Midwest I have come to LOVE this Season. Today we found a pumpkin patch nearby, and it was like pumpkin Disneyland! We had so much fun! Here are just a few of the things we did-
On our way, she was looking out the window at all the trees turning colors, and getting so excited!
We did pony rides! She was so brave, and excited, and yelled “yee-haw” and “getty-up” and didn’t want the ride to end!
Looked at tons of pretty pumpkins!
Pretended to drive a car (and she insisted daddy give her his keys so she could start it!)
Discovered new places!
Gave some pumpkin love!
Drove a choo-choo!
Went on a hay ride to pick our own pumpkins!
This is the best family shot we got for the day- oh well!
Serious reflecting was going on during this hay ride.
I think these fields are so pretty, don’t you?
We made it to the patch!
This one is perfect Mommy!
Doing a little jig on the hay….having waytoomuchfun!
This is the “after” shot- she stayed up WAY past nap time, and fell asleep the minute we started driving home! She’s having sweet dreams, I’m sure.
To see the rest of the pictures from our day- check out my flickr page here
