How to Prioritize Your Time Unselfishly

I don’t always prioritize well. What gets me in trouble is my to-do list. My to-do’s can overshadow the people thing. I can get so caught up in what I’m doing that I don’t allow for people disruptions.

I have that backwards, sometimes.

But I’m doing better at listening to the Spirit. Of course, I can say yes or no to the Spirit. It is always better to say yes. I have to discipline myself to put aside what I am doing to respond to a legitimate need, or phone call, or to meet over coffee at Starbucks.

I have to hold my time loosely.

I can’t covet my time. I can’t hoard my time. I can’t protect my time. It’s not my time, anyways. It’s God’s time. He can help himself to my time to use as His time, by guiding my thoughts and behavior. I learn to listen to His voice and to respond when He nudges.

I have to be willing to act in the moment.

My life is to be lived as a blessing to others. It would be wrong of me to withhold by pulling back in a relationship or a friendship. I can get out of sorts from slight hurts or unkind actions, but such things are not worth losing a friend over. Friendships can drift apart, but that’s not what I am talking about in this instance. One must hold up their end of the bargain.

I don’t always do the friend-thing well.

Yet, I’m trying, and learning, and growing, and hoping, and becoming. Oswald Chambers says we should be ‘broken bread and poured out wine’ to others. Which means, we should live unselfishly and give generously of ourselves to others.

I am thankful every time I respond to an opportunity.

We aren’t always given second chances to do the thing. We won’t regret what we did do, when and if we don’t put off an opportunity when it presents itself. Some things can’t be helped, when something takes precedence over the thing we’ve planned. I missed two vacation opportunities because of someone else’s needs at the time. One can’t regret such things. They are also a part of living life in the flow of things.

Let God be the leader, and you will have no regrets.

Abortion’s False Narrative

Abortion Kills Innocent Life

Texas is in the news, and it’s about Texas banning abortions at six weeks in utero. Depending what side you are on, this news makes you either happy or sad. Prolifers can never give up the fight. People like me don’t give up defending the human right to be born.

She’s pregnant.

(+) They’re celebrating. What a difference it makes if a pregnancy is desired and the baby is wanted. There are parties and celebrations, gender reveals, baby showers, baby announcements and newborn baby gifts. Everyone’s happy about the pregnancy and excited about the baby.

(-) They’re not celebrating. But what about the surprise, unexpected, unplanned pregnancy? What happens when the timing isn’t the best, when the two people aren’t a couple or they aren’t ready for the responsibility of a child, or a baby would interfere with their or her plans, or a baby isn’t wanted, or she’s just a teen herself?

What then?

The baby doesn’t have any say. The baby doesn’t get to choose whether they are wanted or unwanted. The womb is a scary place for the devalued, unwanted fetus. Their status as a prebirthed being makes it is easier to excuse when the birther person chooses to terminate the pregnancy. They abort the problem. Throw away the product of conception. Case closed.

For those who think that abortion is a women’s rights issue–rather than a human rights issue–the termination of a pregnancy is a slam dunk. They can lie to themselves and say that what they are going to do or what they did was right and best, they can save face and reputation. Everyone’s happy. Problem solved.

But not for the PreBorn baby.

They lost their life.

The greatest alarm came from the PreBorn. They didn’t have any say over their own life or about what happened to them. They had the most to lose. They fought in the womb but they didn’t have a chance. Then their life was discarded like yesterday’s lunch. Even the laws of the land didn’t protect them.

Such a travesty.

A few have survived an abortion attempt and lived to tell about it.

How did society come to accept that killing an unplanned, unwanted, unborn infant is preferred, right, and good policy? It came to be believed through deception, lies, and a perceived rightness that says the pregnancy is inconvenient, the wrong time, and so forth.

They have believed a false narrative that says we are in charge of our own destiny and can do whatever we want. Such thinking glibly says that we can sacrifice invisible, innocent lives whenever conveniently necessary for the good of society and for reproductive rights.

Let’s rethink the narrative.

The truth is that even PreBorn lives matter. All life matters. A PreBorn life is more than an ‘it,’ a fetus is a human being. Preborn children deserve to be protected. They deserve a right to be born and to live their life. A womb should be the safest place on earth, instead of the deadliest in some cases.

God places value on human life. God gave every human being a soul at the moment He gave them life. It is no small thing to disregard what God has made. We should help save the unprotected ‘innocents.,’ who can’t protect themselves. We should value all human life, instead of valuing some and not valuing others.

Some women have confided in me their hidden sorrows. They share their regret at terminating a pregnancy/s. They had believed the lie that they were better off without the child, that they probably couldn’t manage a baby at the time. Guilt, grief, sadness and regret came later, when they admitted or sensed that what they had done was wrong.

The conscience knows.

God awakens the conscience. A person cannot disregard or forget what the abortionist has done. Many will justify theirs and others’ abortions as they try to prove that their choice and others’ choices were right, given the circumstances. That’s the clincher, how abortion is justified.

For some, they want to live how they want to live without changing the way they live. They refuse to take ownership of their pasts. Society has made it too easy. So much so, that many women go on to have multiple abortions.

For others, there is regret. Their feelings of guilt, shame and unworthiness cause them to believe they are unworthy of God’s love and forgiveness. But they are mistaken. God loves them unconditionally. He forgives the repentant sinner. Christ meets them where they are at. He forgives their sins, and sets them free.

God calls the sinner to confess and repent of their sins. He calls them to Himself. Post abortive women and abortion clinicians can receive forgiveness through Christ’s sacrifice and by belief in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. This is God’s great gift of redemption through which you receive eternal life.

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We all have a stake in what is happening in our culture today. That is why I am devoting three posts to this phenomenon. More in a couple of weeks.

May God send this article to the person who needs it.

God’s best,

Norma