Learning to Take a Step Back

     My life becomes super hectic at certain times of the year, and in those times, I often forget the important things in life. Right now is one of those times. So lately I have been learning to step back from everything for just a few minutes everyday and take time to renew myself. I don't know if any of you are like me, but I am a very determined person. Once I start something, I am committed to it and even when tempted to quit I can't convince myself to do so. This characteristic can be considered a strength and a weakness. It becomes a huge weakness when I over commit myself. My solution to this problems appears in the form of lists. If you were to walk into my bedroom, you would automatically see the list posted on my door consisting of five 8.5 by 11 pages full of assignments, tests, and things to do for one of my jobs. This is only the first list you would see. Looking closer at my room, you would find a list on my desk reminding me to do things like wash my face and take my vitamin in the morning and a calender on my wall with more lists of what I have to do in the week. My life revolves around lists. Without these lists, I would never get anything accomplished because I would never know where to start. Yet what happens when I start working on something that is not on my list but I know it needs to happen? I have a bad habit of adding things to my list once I have accomplished the task just so I can cross it off.
     So how do you deal with your overwhelming amount of tasks? Are you a list maker like me or do you just start on one task, accomplish it, and move on? Do you find yourself over committing often? These are questions you have to ask before you can start learning to take a step back.
    Priorities: "the right of precedence over others (dictionary.com)." Too many times people don't know how to set priorities in their life. Or else people choose to set unimportant things as higher priorities than the really important things in life. Because I am so goal-oriented in life, I often struggle to set the important things in life has higher priorities. At this point you are probably questioning how this happens when I am a list maker. It is because the important things are those that often don't make it on to my lists: God and people. My number one priority should always be to put God first in my life. I struggle with this a lot, but lately I've realized something: He can go on my list too. I know it seems kind of ridiculous to put my time with God on my to-do list as something to cross off each day, but why does it seem ridiculous? If I put Him on my list, I remember to sit down and take time with Him. If I don't put Him on my list, I get so busy I tend to forget. So I have learned this semester that it is okay to put God on my to-do list if that is what it takes to bring me to a halt and let Him take the reigns of my life. My second priority in life should always be people. There is no purpose to all the other things without people. The other night I had probably fifty urgent items on my lists, but I chose to go out and spend time with my grandma. What did I do while I was with her? I sat still, ate, and listened. My grandma is one of the best storytellers I know. So this week I not only chose to put off some homework, but I also chose to give up my relax time (reading a book or watching TV) to sit still and listen to history--family history. Another example, my best friend goes to school several states away from me; and if we aren't careful, we can go several weeks without even texting back and forth. Then last summer she spent two full months overseas and the only contact we had was intermittent emails and one Skype call. I found that I greatly missed hearing her voice and being able to contact her any time I wanted to do so. This brings me to my point. It's okay to put people on your to do list as well. Each week this friend and I try to schedule a time to talk. Sometimes we stay up a little later. Sometimes we get up a little earlier. Sometimes we put off our homework. Sometimes we are completely free and get to just revel in talking to our best friend (very rarely). My third and final example came about a week or so ago. One night I was supposed to be studying theology and my housemate was supposed to be doing physics homework. I paused in the midst of my studying to ask her a question/make a comment about theology. The result was several hours of just sitting in our living room talking about things ranging from salvation to cats to why our senior years of high school were not the best. I didn't get any studying done that evening for theology and she didn't get any physics homework done. Nevertheless, I don't regret a single minute of that evening because I learned more about my friend and she learned more about me.
     So here's my point to all of this ranting. We, as humans, get so caught up in what we have to do that we often forget what we should do. What's the difference you ask? The difference is that we should always put God and people first in our lives. They are what we SHOULD do. What we HAVE to do is our work, our school, our laundry, and anything else that makes our to-do list. My final thought for the day: do you need to learn to take a step back and breathe so you can accomplish everything you have to do today? Then step back, breathe in time with God and other people, then look at the next item on your to-do list. Don't look at your to-do list, panic, and put off breathing until later. Just as you can't survive without the air you breathe in and out every day, you cannot fully live without spending time with God and other people.

Matthew 22:37-39

"Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"