More Time...

I wish I had more time to ____________. Fill in the blank whatever that is for you. Everyone always wishes there was more time to do lots of stuff. Lately, I just have wanted more time to do "life" things. Pay bills. Clean my apartment. See friends. Run errands. But there's always something in my way. I don't have time to run an errand. I don't have internet at my apartment to pay bills. My friends and family live everywhere from Georgia to Kentucky. But I'm slowly starting to come to the reality that that's life...and that's how life is always going to be.

So I'm learning to enjoy the time even more than ever when I can run errands, clean my apartment, sleep in, and especially see my friends. I love my job more than words express and I think because I love my job and it's not your typical 9-5 job, I'm willing to give up time to myself. So I'm learning to fit in that errand on the way home from a student's basketball game. Call my friends between a lunch with an intern and whatever it is I have to do next. But most importantly, I'm learning to guard the time that I do have to myself. Robert Row, First Pres' most recent hire (and our new youth pastor), has reminded me, Carolann, and Baxley over and over again that we need time off from the kids. Because we say no to them doesn't make us bad youth leaders, it in fact makes us better because we are establishing boundaries. There will always be an email to write, a student to talk to, and calendars to be made...but you know what? Those emails will still be there tomorrow, and the calendars can wait another 30 minutes if it means I will have milk for my cereal tomorrow morning. Students are so important to spend time with, but compromising my sanity is not what it has to come down to.

So today, I slept in and at a bowl of cereal in bed. I watched Gossip Girl on DVD (guilty pleasure), I took an extra long shower, and ate lunch by myself at Rembrandt's and talked on the phone with Taylor. And now, here I am, blogging because it's something I like to do. Tomorrow will be a long day that will be lots of fun because my small group is doing a slumber party, but before I do that, I'm paying bills and cleaning my apartment--for me. There will never be enough time, but that's okay because I will always make time to do what's really important to me.