simple. functional. grace-filled living.

When we were in grammar school, we were taught how to properly place a heading on our notebook paper.  

Of course every teacher had their own preferences. However, what was basically the standard was that you HAD TO write your first and last name, and then just underneath the name of your school, and perhaps just underneath there, your teacher’s name, And your room number.

Then the teacher would have you to skip a few lines and WritE the subject name and or title of your paper. 

Without fail, the teacher would remind us OF ONE THING: DO not go outside of the margins.  And if we dID, we were going to face a consequence. That particular consequence was usually getting points off of our paper.

It didn’t matter how hard we had worked on that assignment, and how well written the paper was, if we went outside of the MARGIN, the end result could be disastrous.  MARGINS PROVIDED BOUNDARIES FOR OUR THE NOTEBOOK PAPER AND THE TEACHERS GRADING THE ASSIGNMENTS IN GENERAL.

And that is TRUE with life.   We schedule our children for 5 to 10 extra-curricular activities per week, leaving no time for breakfast and or dinner, and then wonder why they are cranky and not themselves.

We get up at the last minute for work, OUR DOCTOR APPOINTMENTS, SMALL GROUP MEETINGS, ETC., and then when we get there, we feel like we’ve already BEEN RUN OVER BY A TRUCK.

or, we get up at the last minute, get quickly dressed for work, lunch bag packed, work bag packed, and then we feel grief welling up in our bodies. but because we have not given ourselves any margin, we DON’T HAVE TIME TO RELEASE OUR EMOTIONS. BY THE TIME WE GET WHERE WE’RE GOING, WE ARE LIKE BACKED UP PLUMBING PIPES READY TO EXPLODE.

because we have not dealt with the grief that was ready to be released, we PROCEED TO take it out on our FRIENDS, FAMILY, coworkers, clients, and or customers with judgmental, critical, and condemnatory statements about their appearance, performance, families, ETC., perhaps even throwING in a little GOSSIP ABOUT SOME ISSUE THEY’RE DEALING WITH IN THEIR LIVES.

What would happen if we began to notice all the points taken off of our lives and the lives of others whom we are in relationship with because we failed to give ourselves margin?

Things would look different.

We would be different.

GIVNG YOURSELF MARGIN GIVES YOU AND YOUR LIFE BOUNDARIES.

Giving yourself margin helps you to process grief.

Giving yourself margin helps you to gain perspective.

Giving yourself Margin helps you to deal with reality instead of self-gaslighting.

Giving yourself margin helps you to live in the truest, most authentic version of yourself.

Living a simple, functional, grace-filled life means living a life like Jesus, one that is filled with margin, which includes time to spend with him, in his presence, AND with the people who matteR to us THE most.

It doesn’t mean grabbing someone else’s template for how they live their liFE. It means creating our own, according to the way we have been uniquely designed and created, and knowing that our time, space, and the margin that we create for it will empower us to LIVE IN the truest form of our identity in Christ.