It’s Okay to Do Something instead of Everything

Welcome to Day 20 of 31 Ways to Embrace Lopsided Living!

Scripture exhorts us to do everything in the name of Jesus; but, God’s Word never instructs us to do everything. The point really isn’t how much we do — it’s HOW we do what we do.I need to make a confession. I didn’t use my Jawbone yesterday. Why? Because it’s been so long since I have worn it I couldn’t even find the charger until this morning.

It’s all charged up and I’ll be monitoring my steps today! Just wanted to be honest with you about how my life really looks.

As we are getting into the final days of this series, I want to share something I think we far too often forget.  It has to do with several other idea we’ve touched on … like using pockets of time wisely, valuing progress over perfect, and sometimes good enough is enough.

Here’s what we need to remember, in almost every area of our lives …

We can do something instead of everything.

We forget that though, don’t we?

As mommas {and women, in general, I think}, we have this desire to do it all. Even if we don’t give in the voices in our heads, deep down we believe if we could just get the perfect system in place, we could actually could do it all.

But, it’s just not true.  We can’t do it all. And we weren’t meant to. But there is another, far more menacing, idea we toy with — that we should be doing all we can.

I can do a lot of things. But just because I can, doesn’t mean I should. We need to learn that sometimes {most of the time?} doing something instead of everything is really okay.

Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. Colossians 3:17

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.  Colossians 3:23

Scripture exhorts us to do everything in the name of Jesus; but, God’s Word never instructs us to do everything. The point really isn’t how much we do — it’s HOW we do what we do.

Scripture exhorts us to do everything in the name of Jesus; but, God’s Word never instructs us to do everything. The point really isn’t how much we do — it’s HOW we do what we do.

So, how do you decide which some things you should do? Here is the question I always ask myself —

What are the things only I can do?

Here’s a pretty simple example — LAUNDRY, also known as “the bane of my existence.” No joke! So this week I told Casiday it was her responsibility to get it all done. Has she done it as quickly as I would have? Nope. Has she folded everything the way I would have? Nope. Is it all done after three days? Nope. But she is doing it and so far we all have clean towels and underwear.  And, shockingly, the world has not stopped spinning.

It’s easy to trick ourselves into believing the world hinges on us accomplishing all that “needs” to be done and that no one else can do it as well as we can. But that’s just another one of the enemy’s tactics to keep us from remembering the truth:

Christ came so we can have life to the full! Abundant, overflowing life. And that isn’t about checking things off our list — it is about abiding in Him, knowing Him.

So, what can you do to put this idea into practice in your life? Here’s my challenge to you today:

TAKE SOMETHING OFF YOUR PLATE. MAYBE SOMEONE ELSE CAN DO IT OR MAYBE, THE TRUTH IS, IT DOESN’T REALLY HAVE TO BE DONE.

You don’t have to do it all! Let me say that to you again — YOU DON’T HAVE TO DO IT ALL! It’s true and we need to not only speak it but live it.

It's absolutely okay to do something instead of everything. Truly. #LopsidedLiving Click To Tweet

Living lopsided,

Teri Lynne

Yesterday’s post: Take care of yourself.

Coming tomorrow: Small changes count.

Index to every post in this series here.

 

Read the Psalms this summer with Scripture Dig!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

CommentLuv badge