Everything You Need to be Doing

There are 168 hours in a week.

Doctors recommend 8 hours of sleep each night.

That leaves you with 112 hours.

You should work at least 40 hour work week.

That leaves you with 72 hours.

Everyone needs to eat, take another hour each day. Down to 65.

Now you need to work off what you just ate. Hit the gym! 30 minutes a day, 5 times a week.

62.5 hours to go.

Have a commute to and from work? The one-way average is 30 minutes. You're at 55.5 hours.

And you can't go out looking like that. On average it takes 30 minutes (both men and women) to get ready each morning. I'll even let you slum it on Saturday. 52.5 hours left.

Then there are other things that take our time. Vacuum, laundry, dishes, mowing, car maintenance, paying bills...let's say an hour each day. 45.5 hours to go.

Now follow me on this one: you're supposed to drink 8 glasses of water every day. This means you will also be making a run to the little boys or girls room a LOT. Plus 30 seconds of handwashing each time. 6 times a day at five minutes each time. We're averaging here. That's three and a half hours a week in the bathroom. 42 hours.

You need to keep dating your spouse! Take another 3 hours, down to 39.

Go to church! 37 left.

You should probably buy some groceries. 35.

Did you know that kids are spending on average 5 hours a week in extracurriculars? And guess who is driving, which adds another hour to each day?

Bam 25 hours to go.

How about volunteering? Are you on the PTA? School board? Church committee? Average for that is an hour every day.

Down to 18.

Hopefully your family is healthy. But if someone gets sick...plus checkups, dentist, optometrist... let's be generous and say just 1 hour a week.

17.

You're spending at least an hour a day with your kids...right? Reading, playing...or more likely being a referee. Then putting them to bed.

12 to go.

Everyone needs at least an hour of leisure time each day. The average is 2...let's say 1.5 in this case. Reading, tv, surfing the web, just unwinding. Minus 10.5 hours.

You have 1.5 hours left in your week.

Oh yeah, you should probably walk the dog.

Zero. Perfect, you did it!

So how was your prayer life this week? Get much Bible reading done? Spend much time meditating or just listening for God's voice?

It sure is easy to feel guilty when we don't get to these things. We promise ourselves every Sunday morning we'll do better next week. But look back at the list...what are you going to cut out? It's easy to say "leisure," but that's probably why the majority of us are on antidepressants.

It's a hard thing to order your life in a way that allows you to grow closer to God. So I'm curious...how do you do it?