#51 Get Help {52 Bites}

Today I’m flying down to Southern Oregon to speak at a retreat, entrusting the sweet babes to Jeff and his mom. No better time than today to celebrate help!

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All of us have choices about what we will do. Whether it’s raising four kids or working full-time or growing your own food or writing a book or regularly serving in your church, we all have things we do and we all have the responsibility to manage the homes, habits, and hearts that God has entrusted to us. And sometimes, in order to do this well, we need to get help.

We talked about this about a month ago when we asked the question, “How do you do it all?”  Two quick thoughts from that and then let’s talk about getting help.

1. Maintain constant conversation with God. 

This has been the huge lesson for me the past few months. My friend and discipler, Elisa, always reminds me that she gives God her schedule. Every day. No principles can ever replace the Person of the Holy Spirit who is able to direct our very steps throughout the day.  All our well-intentioned time-management solutions will fall short if we haven’t simply asked God what His will is for our day.

2. Be just as purposeful about what you don’t do as what you do.

I think this was the big lesson of our discussion a few months ago. We talked about what we don’t do and how we can relax about it. Again, back to #1 — we need to seek God daily to ask Him which things we need to let go.

3. Get help. 

Now onto today’s topic. This portion of Tsh’s book is straight from her excellent post here. Meagan Francis also has a great post on the same topic.

For me, help comes in the form of family and friends.  Jeff is great about making Fridays Daddy Day so I can write. He’s also just a really low-maintenance guy, so just the fact that he’ll eat anything I make helps me a lot. My parents also help, now that my mom is back on her feet. They’re aiming to come on Mondays so I can write then as well.  Huge blessing.

And then, of course, where would I be without friends? Most often it is my friend Danielle who can take the kids for an hour, bring me soup when I’m sick, grab that 10 lb. bag of carrots from Costco. I truly think that simply living in community is the greatest source of help.

Here’s my point: Chances are there is someone in your life who wants to help.  Be it a grandparent, friend, sister, aunt, spouse, usually there is someone who would be happy to step up if there were a clear way that he or she could serve.

When Heidi was born things were nuts. Dutch was just 2, I was in seminary full time, Jeff was in seminary, our house sold 6 days after she was born, and we had nowhere to move. I made a big list entitled: “Ways people can help.” So whenever someone called or stopped by and asked that question, I always had an answer. (And yes, people I’d just met scrubbed my toilets and packed all the dishes in my kitchen!)

So, do you need help? If so, where will you go to find it? First, pray (then pray some more) and then:

1. Make a list of people who might like to help.

2. Make a list of ways people could help.

3. Ask.

Then, receive the help graciously. 

And now my application:  I’d actually love to ask for some help from you.

1. If you enjoy writing, love Jesus, and have a blog, I’d love for you to guest post. If you’re interested I can send you more information and guidelines, just contact me here.

2. We’ve had some technical issues with this site, so we’re in the process of redoing a number of things. One of these is the subscribers.  If you’d like to receive posts slipped into your feedreader or email each day, please click the icon above-right to do so. (Email is the one that looks like an envelope.) If you have already done that in the past, could you please re-subscribe so that we can have everyone together in one place? Thank you for your help!

{Also, would you help by your gracious prayers for me this weekend? Thank you Jeff, M&D, Nana for all your generous help! And thank you, all, for your grace and kindness, and for reading.}