TIME WASTERS!

You can waste hours of time talking and gossiping on the telephone. Not only is it timewasting, but this is usually when your children get into trouble or be naughty because they realize the phone has taken mother’s attention away from them.

2. SOCIAL MEDIA – FACEBOOK, IPHONES, IPADS, ETC.
Too many women spend too much time on their iPhones. These iPhones prove how disciplined we really are. Use them to serve you, but don’t become a victim to them. Don’t be checking your iPhone when you should be giving time to your children, reading to them, enjoying them, and doing things that need to be accomplished in the home.

I think there needs to be an etiquette list for iPhones. Here is a list to start with. Let me know others you think of.

a) It is rude to check your iPhone when in conversation with other people. Put it away and give your attention to those you are speaking to.

b) It is rude to bring an iPhone to the table and be checking it and listening for every ding when it is the time to interact and fellowship with your family. Don’t allow any iPhones at your family meal table. THIS IS AN IMPORTANT RULE IN MY HOME!

c) It is rude to be glued to your iPhone when your children need your attention.

d) It is rude to go out for dinner and look at your iPhone instead of being engaged with your husband or family around the table. You see this all the time, don’t you? A family at a restaurant able and everyone looking at their iPhones and no one engaged in conversation. Let’s train our children the true way to live.

e) It is sacrilege to use your iPhone Bible app at church and get side-tracked with messages etc. Use great discipline here. Turn off messaging while you are in church. I think it is still the greatest thing to take your real Bible to church. If you are going to use your iPhone, discipline yourself to not look at one other thing other than the Scriptures you are checking. I have observed people checking social media in church! I have observed it while I have been speaking! I feel grieved. How does God feel?

3. T.V.
I would rather live life than watch it! Teach your children to “live” life rather than watch it go by. Remember that the day is for work, the evening is for relaxation. A good rule for your home is to never turn the TV on during the day. (It can be a timewaster in the evening too)!

4. READING NOVELS WHEN THERE’S WORK TO BE DONE
Don’t be tempted to read a novel during the hours of the night only to wake up too tired to cope with your children during the day.

5. SELF-PITY AND WORRY
Thinking about yourself is a deadly timewaster. You can’t adequately nurture your children or bless others while you use all your emotional energy on yourself.

6. LACK OF ORGANIZATION
If you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it. It is important to have long-range goals, and a goal for each day, even if you don’t accomplish it all.

7. LACK OF DISCIPLINE
Do what needs to be done, not just what you feel like doing. This develops character.

8. TRYING TO DO EVERYTHING AT ONCE
Tackle one job at a time and finish it completely. Then start another job. Clean one room at a time. You don’t have to get everything done in one day. Praise the Lord!

9. INABILITY TO SAY NO
Stay focused. Don’t get sidetracked. Your first priority is to be a wife, a mother, and homemaker. Everything else comes second. Don’t be afraid to say No to extra things.

10. TOO MUCH STUFF
The more “stuff” you have in your home, the more you must clean. The more gadgets and ornaments you have, the more you must dust. The more toys your children own, the more you must pick up. They only need two or three at once. Put the others away. Continually de-junk your house. Keep only what you need.

11. INEFFICIENCY
When cleaning up, don’t carry one thing to another room and then come back for something else. Put everything for one room in a box, and then take one trip to that room. Save on unnecessary movements. Now, I’ve got to leave this computer and get on to cleaning up. Friday is my Cleaning Day. I’ll start downstairs and put everything I need to take upstairs in a box, instead of loads of trips up and down the stairs. Then when I start upstairs, I’ll put everything in the box to come down. Isn’t it amazing how things gradually get all over the house instead of where they’re meant to be?

12. GETTING SIDETRACKED
Stay focused.

Have a great day,

Nancy Campbell