Book Review: “Essentials For Life” by Marcia Ford

I am a member of  BookSneeze which is the book reviewing arm of Thomas Nelson Publishing.  I love it.  Each month or so they have books available for you to either download or get a free copy of to read and review.  It’s a win-win. 

I just finished a book they mailed to me called “Essentials For Life” by Marcia Ford.  I really enjoyed it.  It’s a great book to use as a reference for years to come.  Marcia really simplifies different strategies and goals that pertain to your walk with God.  She uses Bible verses, examples and quotes to help you understand and put together your own plan of action.

In some ways it’s a “to-do” list, but more importantly it’s full of great reminders and inspirations that I plan to use in my daily life.

She covers all areas from how we see God, to knowing the Spirit, understanding the Bible better, spreading the Good News, cultivating our relationship with God,  serving and dealing with our time, relationships and money.   I can’t think of many topics or concerns we have as Christians that Marcia doesn’t cover in this book.  It’s easy to read and set up in a very organized manner.  You could even treat it as a devotional and read one chapter a day.  Each chapter is only 3-4  pages, but filled with great information.

For instance, one of my favorite subjects to talk about with people is spending time with God.  Marcia has a chapter devoted to this topic, of course, and in that chapter she gives some great inspiration.  For those that feel overwhelmed in making time for God she speaks truth about common obstacles (fear of solitude, annoying sounds, etc.).  She uses quotes from very famous authors about how important time with God is, despite our fears and distractions.  She ends with the mere reminder to ask God to help you find the perfect time for Him.  She quotes A.T. Pierson  in saying ” God knows how to save for you the time you sacredly keep for communion with Him.”  I love that.   He will help us save that time…if we let him.

This book is filled with wonderful nuggets of truth and inspiration just like I described above.  I want to read it over and over again to remind myself of these truths and simple acts that can keep me grounded and focused on what truly matters. 

I really think this book offers some great “how-to’s” for living intentionally, simply, and on purpose.  I would highly suggest buying this book, reading it once and then going back and reading it once a year to keep you focused and on track.  Our lives get so busy and we need to always remember the essentials!

Worry

Why do we worry, when God tells us not too?  Who knows.  I do know that I’ve gotten so much better about this and that is partly due to my husband. 

I just go over things that I have to do or haven’t done in my head.  Over and over and over.  It’s exhausting at times.  I’m always thinking of what I still have left to do.  Why?

Something I started doing as a teenager is still very helpful today and I’ve even suggested it to friends.  Write down your worries.  It sounds simple and maybe even a little elementary, but it works.  I promise.   This is what I do.

1.  I make a list of everything that is on my mind at the moment.  Listing out all of my worries (silly or not)

2.  I look back over the list and one by one add logic to the equation and out to the margin I write a solution.  For ex: If one of my worries was “I won’t finish my project in time”.  Then next to that I would probably write that I just need to develop a plan, set aside time and worst case find out if it could be extended. 

3.  After I’ve written solutions to each “worry” I look back over the list.  It takes away a LOT of the stress. 

I believe that letting things float aimlessly around in our heads is so detrimental.   When they are ambiguous, that is so much worse.  Take them out of your head, write them down on paper and look at them.  Face them, be real about them and dissolve the worry. 

We can only do so much in one day and God NEVER intended for us to carry around the weight of worry…especially about our to-do list. 

He wants us to forget our to-do list and worry about His.

The 100 Thing Challenge

You may remember that I wrote about the “100 Thing Challenge” back in Sept. of 2009.  That was really the beginning of my desire to start living with less.  Well, I just finished reading Dave Bruno’s  book about his 100 Thing Challenge and how it all came about.  In this book he writes about how his life was before the challenge and what led him to create this challenge.

Dave then goes on to describe the process of going through his personal things and making decisions on what to sell or give away.  He talks about his emotional ties to his train set and how he had been hanging on to those trains because of some disappointments from his childhood.  I love how he points out how many of us, himself included, go and buy stuff as an attempt to fix an emotional problem.   That is what shopping does for many people.  It tricks them into feeling like they are solving problems, but really they are only creating more.  

He purged the trains.  He says that letting go of those trains ”was inspirational and cathartic.”  I have a part-time organizing business and I would love for a lot of my clients to read Dave’s book.  I wish everyone could experience what it feels like to let things go.  It’s not as scary as many believe.

As I read the book, I felt as if I were sitting down across from Dave and he was telling me the story about his life over the past few years.  His writing is so easy to read and keeps you engaged.  He writes from his heart and lets you into his thoughts and feelings.  He’s transparent, which I love.   He’s real and you can relate to him.  You really get to know Dave and experience the challenge with him through his words. 

I’m inspired by Dave and his story.  I have begun my own 100 Thing Challenge and continue to work on it.  I’m close, but need to continue to pare a few things down quite a bit.  I think it’s a great idea, brilliant really.  Living with less helps us to see what is really important and how much “stuff” we can live without.

I applaud Dave for creating this challenge and I thoroughly enjoyed reading his book and learning  more about the person behind the challenge.

Traveling Light

Mac finished up the Series called “Baggage Claim” at church this past Sunday.  The sermon was on “Traveling Light” emotionally and spiritually.  (I, of course, like to physically travel light as well).  It was a good reminder that we really need to let things go in order to live our lives to the fullest.  If we don’t, we are weighted down with all the “junk” we are carrying around.

He gave us four steps to “Traveling Light”:

1.  Eliminate all unnecessary weight.  (Forgiveness)  Forgiving those that have hurt or wounded us.  Letting go of the hurt.  When we do not forgive others it hurts us more than anyone else.

2.  Carry our own bags.  (Personal Responsibility)  Taking responsibility for our own actions and NOT blaming others.  Learn from your mistakes and move forward, but do not get stuck in blaming others for all that has happened in your life.  This is YOUR life.  Blaming others gets you nowhere emotionally and definitely not spiritually.  God knows the truth and He is just waiting for you to take ownership of your own actions.

3.  Help someone with their baggage.  (Comfort)  Use your past and your “baggage” to help someone else in a similar situation.  Let go of your baggage so you can help someone else carry theirs.  God allows us to go through things so that we can help others in the same situations.  Use your past mistakes for good in someone else’s life.

4. Choose your traveling companions very wisely.  (Community)  Be careful who you do life with.  Always be there to help those in need, but be cautious of those that  you consider your closest friends.  You want those that are closest to you to be on the same page as you are, to have the same values and priorities.  You want those people to lift you up and help you to grow, not weight you down. 

“Above all else, guard your heart,  for it is the wellspring of life.”  Proverbs 4:23

God never intended for us to carry our burdens around.  He knows we’ll have hard times and sadness, but He is here to help us anytime we need Him.  He wants us to go through our feelings, take them to Him and then let go and keep going.  Keep pressing on and moving forward.   Drop the heavy burdens and carry God’s love and grace with you daily.   Allow Him to work in your heart and to work through you in helping others.  Let go of the junk (physically, emotionally and spiritually).  Do not let anything weigh you down in life so that you have the energy, the time and the space to serve others and further God’s Kingdom.  Allow God to use your “baggage” for good and travel light.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”  Matthew 11:28-30

The Two-Minute Rule

I learned the 2-minute rule in this book, “Getting Things Done”. The two-minute rule is this:  If you can do something in 2 minutes, stop and do it right then!  It will save you so much time down the line.  Think of things on your to-do list that if you stopped and did them right now it would literally only take you 2-minutes.  Instead we often (me included) keep them on our list, transfer them to a new list, think about them 100 times and so on.  We end up spending  way too much time thinking about something that would’ve only taken 2 minutes if we would’ve done it right away.

This is especially good for emails.  If you can answer or act on an email in 2 minutes, do it and then delete the email or file it.   Now, obviously you will have plenty of to-do’s that do not fit into this category.  For those you can either delegate or defer.  Delegate it to someone more qualified and/or defer it to a later date.  However, when you defer to a later day you MUST set an appointment with yourself to get it done and STICK to the appointment (I’m guilty of continuing to move it to another date on my calendar, which in turn is requiring more and more of my time).

Try it out today, see what to-do you can accomplish in 2-minutes and Just Do It!

Smilebox

If you haven’t heard of Smilebox, you should check it out.  I love it. You can create e-cards to send all your friends and family and there are tons of different designs to send (for all different occasions).  You can include 1 picture or up to 10 or so depending on which template you pick.  There are even some scrapbook options where you can create a digital scrapbook with up to 400 pictures.  They have newsletter templates (with pictures) if you send newsletters out at Christmas. 

Once you create your e-card, scrapbook, or slide show you can then email it, add it to your facebook or your blog….as well as save it to a DVD or print it.  I believe you have to pay either monthly or a $39.99 a year charge to save it to a DVD (but then it’s unlimited),  and you can email it for absolutely free (with some ads showing up on your email).  If you do not want ads to show up on your email you can pay a $3.99 one time fee (for that card)   That’s it.  I paid $3.99 because I did not want ads to show up on our Christmas e-card, and I have the option to email it over and over to as many people as I want to.  I can also print it.

I think it’s a great deal and people love getting those.  You can include more than one picture so you don’t have to pick just one and you can add music to it.  You can pick from a few they have defaulted for the design you pick, or you can even upload and add your own music.

It’s pretty cool, and it saves money, paper and time! Check it out…

Here is the website:  http://www.smilebox.com/

Are You Ready For The Holidays?

The holidays always seem to just come at me with full force each year.  It’s not a slow process, it’s fast and furious.  We start out fall with back to school and two birthdays in our immediate family.  We follow that up with many additional birthdays in our extended families lasting until early December.  Then, of course, we have Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas mixed in there as well.  It’s busy to say the least. 

Each year I tell myself to start thinking of birthday and Christmas gifts in August because as organized as I am, I still am running around much later than I intend to be. 

This year my focus is on doing more with less.   I want to spend less on presents, but give more.  I want to stress less and enjoy more, and I want to eat less and savor more.  Those are my goals for this holiday season and here are some ways I intend to do  just that:

1.  Give more by buying less.  I recently read a blog post on Matt Jab’s site, DebtFreeAdventure, where he talks about buying less stuff and giving more from your heart.   Click here to read the post.

2.  Send free e-cards.  I discovered Smilebox a few months ago.  It is a site that is owned by Hallmark I believe, and you can send free photo e-cards using the free software that you download from their site.  They have a ton of different designs and you can attach one photo or an assortment of photos.   Some of the cards include a slide show and there are even newsletter cards.  You can send a family letter with an assortment of pictures, all for free!  This is of course only via email, which uses less paper and postage.  A plus.  I am going to combine this with actual cards that I’ll be sending to close family and friends.  However, instead of sending out 50-75 cards, I am going to send a lot of folks on our list the e-cards.   It’s free and it saves time.  Bonus.

3. Decorate less.  In our attempts to continue to minimize our belongings I have sold and given away a lot of my holiday decorations and I am in the process of selling more.   My husband is not a fan of a ton of decorations that just sort of clutter up the house.  He’s not a Scrooge by any means, he just likes simplicity and I do too.  This year we will get a smaller tree, and maybe a real wreath.  I’ll hang our stockings and maybe a few other very special decorations, but that’s really it.  This not only saves me time and energy, but looks better too.  It’s simple yet still festive.   The Christmas holiday is about a lot more than just a bunch of decorations, so instead of focusing on decorations, I want to focus more on the meaning.

4.  Stress Less Over Meals.  I want to enjoy the holidays with good simple food, family and friends.  I will be looking for classic, easy recipes and not trying to be Martha Stewart. 

I found a great website that has a lot of great ideas, recipes, tips, etc.  It is called Organized Christmas (love the name), and the tag line is: “Simplify Your Holidays and Celebrate the Season!”  Perfectly said.  I couldn’t agree more.  That is what I plan on doing.  Check out the site when you get a chance.

Let me know if you have any time-saving or money-saving ideas that can help us to enjoy the meaning behind the season rather than getting caught up in too much stuff!

10 Item Challenge

This weekend we had a garage sale.  It felt SO good to get rid of some of our “stuff” and get paid for it!  We are continuing to minimize our belongings everyday.  I took a bunch of our books yesterday to Half Price Books, and also added more items to Craigslist to try and sell.  We are realizing we don’t NEED much, and a lot of this “stuff” was just sitting around collecting dust.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m participating in the 100 Thing Challenge, and my goal is to have my personal belongings down to 100 items by January.  This is helping my overall goal to minimize and simplify my life. 

To help with all of this minimizing, I decided to create another smaller challenge of my own.  My goal is to only have 10 items in each of these areas.

1. My purse
2. My wallet
3. My bathroom drawer
4. My desk drawer
5. My jewelry box
6. My car

I figure by working on these areas, it will break down my overall goal of 100 things into smaller chunks.  So today I am going to start with my purse.  Here is a current list of what items are in my purse:

1. Wallet (with 10+ items inside)
2. Makeup bag (with 10+ items inside)
3. Camera
4. Sunglasses
5. Reading glasses
6. Wipes
7. Kleenex
8. Gum
9. Cell Phone
10. Pens
11. Phone charger
12. Camera charger
13. Bottle of Advil
14. Allergy medicine
15. Hand lotion
16. 2 bottles of hand sanitizer
17. Mini umbrella
18. Hair bands
19. Glasses cleaning cloth
20. Business cards

Needless to say, my purse is heavy!  And although a lot of this stuff comes in handy sometimes, I do not think I need to carry around so much stuff every single day!

So, for this week I’m going to put only these items back in my purse:

1. Coin purse (with cash, license and debit card)
2. One pen
3. Chapstick
4. Brush/Mirror combo
5. Cell Phone
6. Gum
7. Sunglasses
8. Hand lotion
9. Cell phone charger
10. Camera

And that is it.  I will work on my wallet and then put it back in my purse, but for now I’m going to work with just my coin purse with the essentials.  My wallet will need to be trimmed down quite a bit.  

My shoulder is going to thank me! 

See if there are any areas you want to minimize and try the 10 Item Challenge.  Let me know how it goes!

A Mission to Minimize

I truly am on a mission.  A mission to minimize our stuff.  And I’m having so much fun.  I really enjoy this.  I decided to have a garage sale this Friday and Saturday, so I’m busy clearing out anything we don’t use and I’m pricing it as I go.  It is going to feel so good to get this stuff out of our house.  I can’t wait. 

I know having a garage sale can be a lot of work, but if I can make a little money while also clearing out our stuff, then it’s a win win for me.  I usually take our things to Goodwill.  In fact, I’ve probably made 30 or more trips to Goodwill in the past two years.  But this time I decided we had a few things that would be good for a garage sale and now I’m finding things left and right. 

My husband is being such a trooper.  He’s letting me go through things that he told me over a year ago that he would not get rid of.  I’ve softened him I think.  Actually I think he just sees it differently now.  He sees it as stuff that is just up in a box and not being used.  When you really start to look at it, it’s silly to have things in boxes that have not come out of those boxes in over a year, or in 5 years or more.  We have less and less space in our houses, and the last thing we need to do is store more stuff we don’t use or love.  That’s my mantra these days.  If we don’t use it, or love it….we need to let it go!  (sorry if I keep repeating this, but I feel it’s important to remember)

It’s very freeing.  And yes, sometimes….VERY rarely….you may…..think about something you gave away and wish you hadn’t.  But in my experience (which includes many years of giving things away) I can only think of maybe 2-3 times that has happened, and I quickly got over it.  It was a fleeting thought, and definitely not worth the space I gained in my closet or cabinets.

Think about it….would a garage sale help you clean out your house?  Maybe get together with some neighbors and have a group one.  Or with some members of your church, etc.   Even get the kids involved.  I’m involving mine.  I’ve told them if they go through their things and put things in the garage sale, and help me price them, I will give them a little money from what is sold.  My daughter has cleared out a bunch of her stuff so far.  I’m so proud.

I’ll let you know how the sale goes this weekend.  But in the meantime,  I’m having  so much fun just going through everything and being really tough on myself about whether I should keep or sell each item.  Even for me, it’s hard sometimes.  I think…well I might need that for the holidays.  But I know we can make things work with less.  And that’s what I plan on doing.