3 Daily Habits to Implement in Your Fringe Moments
Three Simple Ways.
If your kids have gone back to school, or if they are home and you are still home, maybe with a new routine, you have a few more minutes to take a breath and think about where you are going to most significantly invest those spare moments between working and taking care of the people in your world.
So much of your day is pre-scheduled, like making breakfast, brushing your teeth, putting gas in the car, laundry, working, emails and ‘all the things’ that are the functional must do parts of a modern day life.
But if you look closely, you will see there are those moments in between that float and invite you in to take hold and leverage the opportunity to make the most of them. Here is what Jessica N. Turner wrote in her book, The Fringe Hours: Making Time For You:
“You are never too busy to make time for what you love. It’s just a matter of prioritizing—evaluating how you spend your days and dedicating time for what you value. If something is really important to you, you will find a way to fit it into your life.”
It’s true – if something is really important to you, you will find a way to fit it into your life.
As men women on mission, these fringe hours, or what I like to think of as floating moments, are will be what can provide a solid foundation to your days of the must-do’s and tether you to the spiritual graces that come from a life connected deeply with God.
These are moments, invested with God, that will naturally become the best moments of your day. These are moments you look forward to with great anticipation, and will become oxygen to your soul.
How do you approach these floating moments in a way that don’t feel like they are a burden but a call to get in touch with your soul and your Creator?
Here are three simple ways to leverage the most of these fringe moments, given and graced to you by the God who ordains all your days. All of these moments begin and end with time in God’s word. As you read God’s word, do the following:
Read – Ask – “What does it say?”
To be a woman who stands out in a culture of conformity you need to be in the Word of God daily to allow it to shape you and inform your decisions, big and small. Choose a small passage every day, either chronologically, or by reading an Old Testament and New Testament passage, or by going through a book of the Bible – and just read it – three times – for maximum impact. Create a statement in your words, simply, of what it says.
Receive – Ask – “What does it mean?”
Reflect and even journal simply on what the passage actually means in the context it was written and to the people it was written for. Sit with the meaning of the words, verse by verse in the passage you have chosen, for a few minutes.
Respond – Ask – “What does it mean for me?”
There should be one action step of obedience from your time in God’s word. Perhaps it will be a reminder to pray for someone, or to ask forgiveness, or an invitation to come to God in prayer for a deep seated need you have been running from, or even to share the gospel with someone God has placed on our heart.
Use your fringe moments for self care, for sure. But understand that the root of all self-care comes from nurturing your soul through moments with God. Your fringe or floating moments will become the most significant part of your days and your years. You will become wiser, more at peace with life, more secure in your faith as your trust deepens and you become grounded daily in the character of God as revealed in His word.
I pray that each of you would find greater peace and encouragement through your daily fringe moments with God. Eventually these moments will become so important, that they become integral and move other things into the floating spaces. You have been destined for kingdom impact on the lives of others.
You are loved!
Cathie