What time is it? Is it time for _____?

As a Mom, Wife and Minister, I often wonder what I can do to make my time more efficient. Because, frequently I find that it's difficult to compartmentalize my time into my various hats.

For example, today, is a school holiday. The extended care at CSK, where my daughter attends private school, used to meet on most school holiday's for us working parents. Now, they don't. Probably because 90% of our children at extended care are made up of teachers kids.

So, we do the kid juggle. River went with David this morning. She's with me this afternoon. Reese got to go to his MDO this morning, so I could have staff meeting at the office. But, by the time staff meeting was done, it was lunch time.

Now we are home. Reese is refusing a nap, River is playing on the floor. I need to take the dog to the vet.

I have updated the Children's Ministry blog, answered a bunch of emails, made several ministry related phone calls and feel "caught up" on the pressing needs. The next big items on my list are vision/planning items that require some things in the office and a little more quiet than I have right now.

So, my clock on my computer says "work hours" and I'm trying to decide what needs to be done. But, my daughter is scrapbooking and would love some well deserved Mommy time. And ... I can't help but think her bathroom, just a few feet from where I'm sitting, needs disinfecting.

I sometimes wish ministry could be compartmentalize like my husbands work. He goes to work, he does his job, and he comes home. I wonder if I worked harder to control my schedule to keep the lines from blurring if it would be possible to compartmentalize my life.

In reality, I'm certain the answer is "no". Ministry, as some friends like to say, is a 24/7 type of job. Even when office hours are done, emergencies happen. In Children's Ministry, with so many volunteers to oversee (70+ serving in any given month) a lot of follow up happens in the evenings, on weekends, and before and after church during traditional "family time". For me, the office can be so distracting that it is easier for me to think deeply about the curriculum and vision casting responsibilities late at night when everyone is asleep.

I chose ministry, in part, because I wanted to have a career that would not just be a job, but, a lifestyle. I just wonder if I do that lifestyle thing right? I loved the idea that my undivided attention was on God's work and my passion to teach his children about Him. I wonder, though, if my undivided attention is sometimes on the job and not on God's work? Because, we all know that His work is much bigger than the career He gives any of us, but, that it has to start inside us, spread to our family and then into all the world. I wonder how I often I might neglect the "me" and "family" portion of that just to help Him out with the "all the world" part of it.

Hmmm ... something to keep thinking about.