How many of you love the first week of school?  And all the mothers say, hallelujah and amen! Getting into a routine, marking things on the calendar, and knowing that my kids are ready (or not, here they go!) to learn and grow in their understanding of the world, who they are and the disciplines of life that they are being led into are all things that come to mind as we begin another year of school.

In preparation for this year, I’ve been asking myself a few questions as I jot down my to-do lists and fill up my planner and start the meal-planning.  The questions sound like this: Am I allowing for any margin in my days?  Is there time for actual relationships, reflection and most importantly, a resolve to be with the Lord?  Essentially, I’ve boiled it down to one question that I’m going to share with you today . . . Am I leaving room for life?

It’s so easy for me to see a blank day on my calendar and think, there’s nothing going on that day. It’s open!  I’m free to fill it up with something, right?  And then I make big plans for the day without really counting the cost of what is actually going to take up that space . . .real life.

Can I just say out loud that real life counts?  Maybe as you read this, you will want to take a deep breath and say that out loud, too?  I think we are a generation of mothers and parents, individuals, and families, who have forgotten that the everyday stuff actually matters.  And I’m just as guilty as the next busy mom.  What happens when we do this?  Over time, our beliefs may begin to change.  We unknowingly start to de-value the simple, and granted sometimes mundane, things that actually in all reality do take up our time.  And before we know it, in the depths of our hearts, minds and souls—those things don’t matter.  They become worthless time wasters that we don’t account for.

And that’s simply not true.  I’ve been challenged to go back to the Bible and renew my mind about the worthiness of the everyday.  I want to start this fall semester with that single question, am I leaving room for life?

Let me first define what constitutes every day, real life for me and probably for you as well.  Of course, it’s the laundry, the meals, the driving around, the job, the balancing of the checkbook, the cleaning, the phone calls to people, the errands, the messes, the planning itself and the unplanned whatever, and, well, for most of us the list goes on. We know it never ends, so why do we act like it’s not there? 

It’s the cultivating of relationships, too.  First, our communion with Jesus and second, with others. Hugs and talks and prayer and Scripture reading take time.  Just because these tasks aren’t written on that blank space on our calendar, like all the other appointments and special events that we write in, doesn’t mean that they don’t count.

What a relief.  And if you (like I have) need more convincing, let me share a profound biblical truth that might get you there.

Life itself begins in Genesis Chapters 1 and 2 and along with that begins, real life. Like, the everyday tasks of human living. Which takes work, as we well know.  For Adam and Eve to follow the very first words of the Creator—to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion . . . “(1:28)—they would have to start doing all the things.  Communing with God and with each other, working and be fruitful to fulfill their callings before the Lord. This was all taking place in the perfection of the Garden before the sin of man ever entered into the picture.  That’s an important truth to remember.

These things, then, remind us, as they renew our minds and help us to reframe our beliefs, that work is ordained by God and that humans were gifted with everyday tasks that actually honor Him through that work. Physical work and work in relationships. In short, real-life stuff was blessed.  It took effort, time and energy, but it was blessed.  And even today, as we experience the difficulties that came after the fall when sin did enter in, we can be assured of that same truth.  That our calling to live out being human in this world and all that it entails,  is blessed. It’s note-worthy.

When I am doing the things, the things matter.  Sometimes I ask myself yet another question: Would these things go unnoticed if they didn’t get done? Umm, absolutely not!  Because the empowering truth is that the everyday tasks are bringing actual life to our families, our workplaces, our churches and our communities. 

How refreshing.  How freeing it is to know that that my chaotic calendar can have some empty space and be okay.  That margin during the month is a good and godly thing. And most of all, that leaving room for life honors the Creator of life Himself.  I’m adding “LIFE” to my day to-do list today.  How about you?