Do you wish you knew the Lord more? Do you ever feel confused when you read certain parts of the Bible and don't understand why God does the things he does? Do you yearn to love him more and more with each passing day? 

That's the motivation behind this new series, Practical Theology for Homemakers. Hopefully as we move through this series, you will grow in some of those questions. So far we covered: Why Theology Matters for Homemakers, The Goal of Our Christian Life, and So What's the Big Deal About Studying God's Word?

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This next part we will be diving into is: The Attributes of God. If we want to come to love and worship the Lord more, we need to know Him more. Understanding the attributes of God is one great way to study God more - and thus come to love Him more! 

When you first met your husband, you were not simply content to learn his name and a few random facts about him. No, you want to learn all there was about him, who he is, how his brain works, and how he looks the world. And in the process of learning more about him, you fell more in love with him. 

I've been doing a lot of study on the book of Proverbs this year and one of the biggest take aways is that our faith starts with a healthy fear (or awe) of God.

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;

    all those who practice it have a good understanding.

    His praise endures forever!" - Psalm 111:10

When we were called to be a disciple of Christ, when we came to salvation, our knowledge of God shouldn't stop there. Yes, we should have a thorough understanding of the Gospel and to be able to preach it to our family and all we come into contact with. But our knowledge of the Lord should grow from there. 

"My conception of God was that he was approachable and accessible, the God that the Lord's Prayer endearingly refers to as 'Our Father.' And he is that. He is mercifully and gloriously that Father. But what the fear of the Lord acknowledges is that he is not only that. He is also 'in heaven,' with a name that is hallowed above all others. He is both a God who is near to us and a God who transcends. The fear of the Lord comprehends the fact that the Father we are taught to call 'ours' is also the Lord of the universe, enthroned between the cherubim, doing as he pleases among the nations." - None Like Him, pages 11-12

So we see that the beginning of Wisdom is a healthy fear and awe of the Lord. The beginning of wisdom is to accurately understand who God is and we learn that from the pages of Scripture. 

"When we fear God rightly, we recognize him for who he truly is: a God of no limits, and therefore, utterly unlike anyone or anything we know. This is the start of becoming wise."- None Like Him, page 13. 

Accurately understanding God's attributes not only allows us to know him more, it also protects us. It protects us from idol worship, from worshipping false God's and things that look like God but are not. It helps us to be more discerning with what we read and listen to. It protects us by helping us to accurately discern and understand the difference between false doctrine and teaching and true teaching. 

*Please note: For a deeper study into each of these attributes, I highly recommend you get a copy of None Like Him by Jen Wilkin. 

God is Infinite

...and we are not. 

"Any discussion of how God is not like us must begin with an acknowledgement that we are measurable and he is not. God is infinite,

Mother's Day was a few days ago. Maybe you got a small bouquet of flowers. Maybe you got a hand written card. Maybe you got a half-hearted "Happy Mother's Day" from your teen. Maybe your husband did the dishes for you. 

Maybe. And maybe you are now feeling a little disappointed. Maybe you are feeling hurt that your husband didn't make a bigger deal out of the holiday on Sunday. Maybe you resent the fact that you still had to do all the cooking and the cleaning over the weekend. Maybe you are wishing that just for once, someone in your family would notice ALL that you do. 

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Maybe it's two days after Mother's Day and you are already feeling like no one appreciates you. 

I get it. I think all of us have been there at one moment or another. "Don't they see ALL that I do for this family day in and day out?" "Wow, I sure wish I could just throw my clothes all over the room and hope that someone else will deal with it later." "I don't ever stop working, I wish that just for one second that someone would notice that and recognize it!" 

I know it's easy for these feelings to creep into our hearts. But at the end of the day, this is only going to lead us feeling frustration, overwhelmed, and with a lot less joy in our lives. These feelings and this line of thinking robs us of our contentment in the everyday. 

When mother's day is over and we are feeling under-appreciated and overwhelmed, how do we being again to find joy? 

Finding our Joy in the Lord 

It can be so discouraging when we feel like we are not appreciated for all we do. We want to be recognized or even just given a small thank you every once in a while. But when we don't get these, or it doesn't look like how we think it should look...we are quickly robbed of our joy. 

The problem is: We are placing our hope, our trust, and our joy in the things of this world. We are placing our joy - or our lack there of - in the hands of our toddlers who might wake up on the wrong side of the bed and scream all day or in the very angsty hands of our teenagers. 

We are turning to our family to fulfill us and meet our needs. I did this a lot in the early days of our marriage. I looked to my husband to fulfill all of my needs. I looked to him for encouragement, for security, for complete and perfect love...and of course, when he would inevitably fail...my joy would go along with it. 

I've learned through too many mistakes throughout the years that ultimately, my joy needs to be in the Lord. These sinful humans that we live with day in and day out WILL fail us at one point or another. Or everyday. 

Yes, our children and our husband can bring us an immense amount of joy. But if our ultimate joy, peace, and life rests in how our family all responds to us then we have turned our family or our kids into an idol and at the end of the day, we will be sorely disappointed. 

RELATED: Idols of the Heart and Keeping Our Eyes on Jesus - Hf #45

“Idols aren’t just stone statues. No, idols are the thoughts, desires, longings, and expectations that we worship in the place of the true God. Idols cause us to ignore the true God in search of what we think we need.” – Idols of the Heart, page 23

Instead of placing our trust and our hope in our family, we need to place that trust and that hope in Christ. We need to turn to him when life hurts, when we feel disappointed, when we are overwhelmed. 

When we tie our identity,

It's one thing to pay lip service to the importance of reading God's Word - it's another thing to actually cherish God's Word and to dig into it as often as we can. It's one thing to hear God's Word preached on Sunday and then move on with our week and forget about it - it's another thing to be daily savoring what God has revealed to us in His written Word. 

Join me this week as we cover part 3 in our brand new series: Practical Theology for Homemakers. Part 1 we covered Why Theology Matters for Homemakers (HF #72) and part 2 we covered The Goal of Our Christian Life (Hf #74). 

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As we move deeper into this series, soon we will be covering the attributes of God, how to be more discerning with what we read and listen to, how and where we find our identity and more. We are about to move into some really good episodes. 

But first, we need to establish a VERY firm foundation: Do we REALLY trust God's Word? The entire scope of our Christian life is based on this. If we can't trust God's Word to be accurate and true, then how can we base our life on it? 

So we are going to briefly cover the inerrancy and sufficiency of God's Word and then move into some practical ideas for studying God's Word and how you can come to truly cherish God's Word. 

Can we really trust God's Word? 

First question we must ask, is what is the Bible good for? Why did God give us the Bible? The Westminster Shorter Catechism says, 

Q. 3. What do the Scriptures principally teach?

A. The Scriptures principally teach, what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man.

Essentially, the Bible teach us who God is and how humankind relates to God. The Bible is the story about God redeeming His people. 

"All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." - 2 Timothy 3:16-17

The study into this goes way beyond the scope of this podcast episode, but as protestants, we believe that God inspired all the human authors of the Bible to write it. The Holy Spirit prompted the writers of the Bible and because it's all God-breathed as 2 Timothy says, it is God's perfect and Holy Word and it is without error. 

"For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." - 2 Peter 1:21

This is called the inerrancy of Scripture. That God inspired the human writers and each word contained in His Word is without error. We can fully trust what God's Word teaches us about God and our world. In fact, it's the only trustworthy source we have at our disposal. It's the sole place we can find truth in this world as we seek God. 

"God’s Word is sufficient to meet every need of the human soul as David verifies frequently in his psalms. Psalm 19:7-14 is the most comprehensive statement regarding the sufficiency of Scripture. It is an inspired statement about Scripture as a qualified guide for every situation. Scripture is comprehensive, containing everything necessary for one’s spiritual life. Scripture is surer than a human experience that one may look to in proving God’s power and presence. Scripture contains divine principles that are the best guide for character and conduct. Scripture is lucid rather than mystifying so that it enlightens the eyes. Scripture is void of any flaws and therefore lasts forever. Scripture is true regarding all things that matter,

I talk about reading a LOT. It's a hobby of mine but it's also an important tool I use in my Spiritual growth. Because I read a lot and talk about it a lot, I get a ton of questions about reading and the best ways to fit it into a busy homemaker's schedule. 

I get it. It can be really hard to fit any reading time into your already too busy and too full schedule. But I want to encourage you to try and find a few minutes in your week to invest in a good book. Reading is so life giving and encouraging to me that I sorely miss it when I get out of the habit. 

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This week, I got a question from someone inside my online training academy for homemakers. As I was thinking of how to respond, I decided I had too much to share on the topic and wanted to record an episode for you since I know others will have the same/similar questions. She said, 

"Jami Reading question! How do you choose where to start? There are so many books and ebooks and audiobooks I want to read. I'm also the type who doesn't like to have more than 2 books at a time (one nonfiction and one fiction - although I never read fiction anymore). How do you decide what's most important to begin with? Pick an area of study (motherhood, parenting, hospitality, etc.) and focus down for a month at a time? Hop around?" 

I'm honestly not sure I'm the right person to answer this question since my Goodreads account since my Goodreads account currently shows I'm in the middle of 12 books! I'm not good about staying in one book at a time...but maybe that's just my personality ;) 

How to Choose Where to Start 

Are you ready for my brilliant advice? Don't think - just grab a book and start reading! I think sometimes we make this far too complicated. We procrastinate and get overwhelmed when we think of all the books out there that we really want to read. 

So walk over to your bookshelf  - or open your Kindle app - and give yourself about 30 seconds to grab a book. Then start reading!! 

Follow a reading plan:

I know sometimes if you are trying to expand your reading and want to read different things, it's easier to follow someone else's plans. So here are a few suggestions to breathe new life into your reading plans: 

2017 Christian Reading Challenge for Women (my very own plan!)

Tim Challies' 2017 Reading Challenge (this is what inspired MY reading plan)

Modern Mrs. Darcy Reading Challenge 

Set up Categories:

Another fun idea is to pick 4-6 categories for yourself and cycle between then. For example your categories might be 1) Christian Living/Theology 2) Biographies/History 3) Biblical Womanhood/Homemaking 4) Marriage 5) Parenting 6) Fiction

Then add 5-10 books to each category that you've always wanted to read. Start with category 1) Christian Living/Theology. Go to the your reading list for that category and pick the first book. Read that one, and then move on to category 2) Biographies/History. Read the first book on your list and then move on to category #3, etc. 

This is pretty much what I do and it allows me to cycle through different kinds of books! I'm reading more fiction this year and I tend to get really sucked into fiction books so I make sure between series to read several other non-fiction books before jumping into my next fiction series. 

Pros: The pros of this reading plan is that your reading is varied. You get your face in many different subjects and you are diversifying your ...

It seems like we are always working. Always striving. Always doing and always trying. As Christians, we can easily feel pulled in a million different directions as we try and figure out what we should be spending our time on. 

What's the ultimate purpose and goal? What is the goal of our Christian life? 

Last week we covered Why Theology Matters for Homemakers and covered the introduction to our new series: Practical Theology for Homemakers. In that episode we talked about what theology is, why it matters, and why we need theology in our life. 

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As we move through the practical parts of learning theology, the first thing to cover is our ultimate goal of our Christian life: to Grow in Godliness. We are on a continual process as Christians of growing in our faith and of growing closer to the Lord. But it's not always easy is it?  

"As housewives, we often add to our job titles cook, chauffer, accountant, nurse, maid, and many other things. But have you ever considered being a theologian as a necessary part of your vocation? I have heard many people tell me, 'I know that I am a Christian. I have faith, and that is good enough for me. I don't feel the need to make it all complicated with theological stuff.' It is heartbreaking and shameful that theology has such a bad reputation. Because of this, I am compelled to investigate such a profound misunderstanding.

Faith is a gracious gift from God, and this faith has content. It is not just faith in faith. When you fall in love with your husband, are you satisfied at that moment to learn nothing else about him? Of course not, the opposite is true; you want to know more and more of him. And your love grows in this way. Now think of our all-knowing, all-powerful God. Can we ever exhaust our learning of him? What a privilege and an honor to be able to know our God!" - Housewife Theologian, page 13 

Studying theology simply leads to growing in our faith which then means growing in our relationship and love of the Lord! 

We are no strangers to growth. Growth is all around us. We are continually growing; our kids sprout up before our eyes, we are growing in our careers and knowledge of the world. We sense it in the seasons and the changing of the year. We are always growing and changing and being molded. 

But what are we being molded into? What image are you reflecting? With each passing day are you becoming more and more like the world? Or more and more like Christ? You are always growing - so the question becomes: What are you growing towards?

The Bible assumes that we will always be growing and Peter in particular urges us to be growing in the Lord. 

"But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen."- 2 Peter 3:18

"Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ," - Ephesians 4:15

We are not meant to be stagnant in our walk with the Lord. We are called to always be learning and growing and drawing closer to God. 

We grow in our faith in two ways: 

1) When we are intentional 

God calls us to be intentional with our Spiritual walk. This is where our obedience is expected in reading God's Word, prayer, and being active in our faith. 

2) The Holy Spirit Working in Us

While we are called to obedience, we also must recognize that nothing we do is of our own effort.

A few weeks ago I got a comment from a friend who was feeling overwhelmed and like her work in the home is just plain pointless sometimes. And my heart went out to her! 

Last week I addressed the first part of her question: When Your Work Just Doesn't Feel Worthwhile. In that episode I addressed the heart aspect of it. And today, I want to address the practical parts of her question. Where can you turn to for help when life seems overwhelming? 

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Here's her question: 

“Jami, I’ve really been struggling with something lately, and was hoping you’d have some advice for me. Lately, I’ve been so tired. Just tired of the everyday. I get up and feed the kids, then the baby, then do laundry, dishes, a bit of school work, change diapers, feed everyone lunch, and so on and so on. It feels like 80% of my time is spent dealing with feeding my family whether it’s prep, cooking, eating with them, or cleaning up afterwards. I go to bed dreading the next day because I think “I have to get up in 7 hours just to do all this again”. Seriously, I am missing the point here. I don’t feel like I am doing important work, and when I consider the possibility that what I’m doing is important, I don’t think I’m doing it right. I mean most days I’m lucky if I get any work done at all or the kids get a bath that night. Sometimes it’s several days before they get another one. I know that’s not super important but I think it get the point across a bit more. If this all makes sense, please help me see the point or bigger picture in all this drudgery!”

I think she has a lot of different emotions and feelings going on in this question (which is why I'm taking two whole podcasts to address it). So we are going to discuss a few different things. 

Make sure you are taking care of yourself

This is one of the first things that stands out to me from what she said. She's tired, tired, tired. I have been there so many times over the past few years that I have been so so wiped out simply because I'm not taking care of myself the way I should. I used to be able to get by without a lot of exercise and not eating well. But after five babies and getting older...I NEED to take care of my physical needs. 

And the last three months I've actually been eating really well. I've been making myself eat more vegetables, fish, and actually sit down for lunch. This simple act has already had a big impact on my energy levels and how I feel. 

When I'm done breastfeeding, Jason and I are going to do this 12 day herbal cleanse. He did it already back in January and loved it (it even helped him lose weight)! 

And as I type this, I am SHOCKED to admit that Magnolia is now over three months old and I haven't worked out once since she was born. Wowza! So this is a big thing I am going to try to work into my schedule more the next few months. I know my body needs it and my energy will eventually thank me for it. I have Lindsay Brin's Post Natal Slimdown that I did after my second set of twins and LOVE it!! I've also heard wonderful things about Trim Healthy Mama's new workout DVD's! 

Set some goals in your home

It is seriously discouraging when you are aimless in our home. When you wonder around, just keeping up on things. It's easy to feel discouraged and like you are not working towards anything. So I like to set goals, even if it's cleaning goals or reading goals. 

Setting goals helps me to keep track of things, cross things off a list,

I love to read. I get excited to see the new releases each month and typically read anywhere from 4-10 books a month. I love to read fiction books, but my real love lies in Christian non-fiction. 

In fact, I issued a Christian reading challenge for women this year and several thousand women are all reading together this year and encouraging one another in that endeavor. It's really fun and encouraging!  

But because I'm such an avid reader, one very sad thing becomes all too apparent: The Christian book market is riddled with books marketed to women that are full of fluff. They are devoid of anything of substance and many of them have very wrong and un-Biblical teaching inside.

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And yes, we women eat them up and recommend them to our friends. I'm not saying that every popular book out there is trash...but somewhere in our popular Christian culture, we forgot to be discerning with what we read, what we take in, and what our theology is. 

It scares me and troubles me to see the fluff and down right false teaching that is circulating as "good Christian books". So what's the answer? 

We women (and all believers) need to know God's Word. We need to be well versed in the Bible so that when that fluff or false teaching comes around, we can recognize it for what it is. We need to be discerning so that we can bring every thought, deed, and action back to God's Word to measure it against what God has to say...not man (or that popular woman blogger)!

I've been doing a lot of study on this topic lately. And my biggest encouragement and takeaway has been that women need to learn theology. We need to live in, dwell in, and know God's Word. Having a firm grasp of theology is essential for the life of the believer. 

You might be thinking that this is a boring topic. And you are about ready to tune out. But there are some intensely practical reasons for studying theology. We will discuss that below. But first:

What is theology? 

What do I mean when I say we will spend the next four weeks studying practical theology? Will I be sharing really boring books and quotes from people who died a long time ago? Will you be falling asleep at the wheel from long boring talks? Absolutely not! A good decision on practical theology has deep roots into all aspects of our lives. 

"The word 'theology' comes from two Greek words that combined mean 'the study of God.' Christian theology is simply an attempt to understand God as He is revealed in the Bible. No theology will ever fully explain God and His ways because God is infinitely and eternally higher than we are. Therefore, any attempt to describe Him will fall short (Romans 11:33-36). However, God does want us to know Him insofar as we are able, and theology is the art and science of knowing what we can know and understand about God in an organized and understandable manner. Some people try to avoid theology because they believe it is divisive. Properly understood, though, theology is uniting. Proper, biblical theology is a good thing; it is the teaching of God's Word (2 Timothy 3:16-17)." - Got Questions

Our "theology" is what we know about God. So studying theology simple means learning more about God. And the idea of practical theology couples our knowledge of God with those practical parts of our life. 

"Don't be content with the Christian desk calendar approach to Christianity. Don't be satisfied with a daily practical saying or some three-step process for being a good wife or a bett...

Throughout college as I was writing papers on Ancient Near Eastern History and learning how to read the Bible in the original Hebrew (yeah - I was a double major - History and Biblical Studies and loved every minute of it), it was easy to feel like I was spending my time on extremely worthwhile things. 

After college, I worked full time and had dreams of getting my masters degree (I still do for that matter) and it was easy to feel like I was contributing to my family by bringing in an income when we really needed it. 

Now? My days are spent changing poopy diapers (which amounts to a LOT with three in diapers), the endless cycle of meal prep, cleaning dishes, putting up a new load of laundry, folding that laundry, putting it away and starting all these processes over and over again. 

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It's so easy to head to bed each night, feeling defeated, overwhelmed, and NOT looking forward to tomorrow. Somewhere along the line, it became easy to forget the importance of what I do. Somewhere amidst the poopy diapers and the mile high pile of dishes...it became easy to feel like nothing I do is of much consequence. 

I think a lot of us struggle with these feelings from time to time. But we don't want to voice them because then maybe it will look like we are not "good" mothers or "good" homemakers or we are not grateful for all that God gives. 

This week I got a question that really touched my heart. And I decided that I needed to address it, in two parts in fact. Here's what this sweet mama said, 

"Jami, I've really been struggling with something lately, and was hoping you'd have some advice for me. Lately, I've been so tired. Just tired of the everyday. I get up and feed the kids, then the baby, then do laundry, dishes, a bit of school work, change diapers, feed everyone lunch, and so on and so on. It feels like 80% of my time is spent dealing with feeding my family whether it's prep, cooking, eating with them, or cleaning up afterwards. I go to bed dreading the next day because I think "I have to get up in 7 hours just to do all this again". Seriously, I am missing the point here. I don't feel like I am doing important work, and when I consider the possibility that what I'm doing is important, I don't think I'm doing it right. I mean most days I'm lucky if I get any work done at all or the kids get a bath that night. Sometimes it's several days before they get another one. I know that's not super important but I think it get the point across a bit more. If this all makes sense, please help me see the point or bigger picture in all this drudgery!"

She posted this question in a private group of mine and within minutes, several other women were commenting "following" or "I struggle with this same thing!" You see - my friend struck a nerve. So many of us feel this all the time or in certain seasons and it can be easy to fell alone and lost in it. 

Next week I am going to address the first part of her question - the physical parts of working around the house, getting some momentum and inspiration, investing in yourself and more. But first, I knew I had to address the real root of the problem....

What to do when...

Your Work doesn't feel worthwhile or important! 

I know how debilitating it can be when we feel useless. We don't greet our day with joy or enthusiasm when it feels like nothing we do matters. It's easy to feel stuck and to dread the start of yet another un-meaningful day. 

So what do we do when we have these feelings?

A secret weapon in my homemaking is listening to things out loud during my day while I work around the house. It helps motivate me to get to work, helps me stay energized while I work, and becomes an incredible opportunity to learn and grow.

I regularly listen to the Bible, many good podcasts, and audiobooks. Because I talk about this so often, people always ask me what podcasts I listen to. Today I'm sharing all my favorites. 

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When I Listen to Things:

The more you get into the habit of listening to things out loud, the more you want to listen to things out loud. I love finding pockets of time in my day. Here are my favorite times to listen to books and podcasts throughout my day: 

Cooking & Cleaning

I do probably 50% of my Bible reading while I'm making breakfast. If I didn't get up early enough to do my Bible reading before the kids get up, then I love to listen to the Bible out loud while making breakfast. I also love to listen to podcasts and audiobooks out loud while I do other meal prep, clean the bathrooms, do the dishes, etc. 

Driving

We live in the woods so we are a good 20-45 minutes from anywhere. I love to use this time to listen through some things...driving becomes one of my favorite things. In fact, sometimes if I am having a particularly rough day (if the kids woke up at night, someone's not feeling well, or so on) then I will throw everyone in the car and go for a drive. It helps!

Projects at Night

Before bed, I like to do a good 15-30 minute pick up around the house. This is a great time to listen to stuff. OR Jason will read out loud to me while I work or we will listen to an audiobook together. We will also do this if I'm doing things like working on a painting project, decluttering, etc.

All My Favorites:

The Bible

I use the YouVersion Bible App. It's a free app that gives you access to hundreds of Bible translations. Several of the translations allow you to play the audio version of the Bible as well as read it. I listen in the ESV and the guy who reads it does such a good job! 

Like I said, probably 50% of my Bible "reading" is actually done while listening to it out loud. If you are really struggling to establish a good Bible reading habit, then this is a great thing to add into your day! 

Podcasts for women: 

Homemaking Foundations Podcast with Jami Balmet

What is this podcast doing here?? ;) I wanted to include my very own podcast just in case you are not familiar with it yet. If you are looking for something to listen to for Christian women, I encourage you to check it out!

Flower Mound Women's Bible Study by Jen Wilkin

I adore Jen Wilkin and love her advice! I've read two of her books and plan to read the rest of them. I'm just starting to go through her Bible study podcasts and highly encourage you to do the same! 

Cultivating the Lovely Podcast

My friend MacKenzie's podcast is probably top of my list right now for favorite podcasts for Christian women! She's always so encouraging and motivation and I love the guests she brings on the show. And hint hint: You might just see MacKenzie popping up on my very own podcast very soon ;) 

Inspired to Action with Kat Lee

I would say that this podcast is definitely geared more towards moms but it's very encouraging and inspiring for anyone! I find that I get a lot of good, practical take aways from this podcast. 

Yesterday on the podcast I attempted to answer a question and went in the direction of what do you do when your day gets derailed? So hop over to listen or read that episode because it's got some good stuff. Here's the question I got:

“I was wondering if you could share a schedule on your page, or with me! Your post about distractions really opened my eyes. How do you schedule your day without too many distractions?”

So as I've been thinking about it, I decided I wanted to also address a different angle of this. I wanted to talk about distractions and how we can attempt to eliminate these distractions from our day. 

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What qualifies as a "distraction"?

It starts with our priorities. I have these more fleshed out, but these are my priorities in order:

A Vibrant Relationship with the Lord

Passionately Pursue my Husband

Spend Time with the Kids

Craft a Healthy Home

Manage and run my blog and ministry

So when I'm attempting to look at what qualifies as a distraction in my day, it all flows out of my priorities. It can sometimes feel like a distraction when our kids come up and want us to sit on the couch to read a book because they are pulling us away from doing the dishes. But spending quality time with our kids is a priority as well. 

So first, we have to make sure we are thinking rightly about distractions and what they really are. 

Think really hard about your social media time

I am not about to say that all of social media is a waste of time. I think there can be really good times and moments for social media.

You can use Facebook to keep up with family and friends who live across the globe.

You can use Pinterest to learn how to better meal plan and find delicious meals for your family.

Instagram can inspire you to create lovely spaces in your home and to read more books.

Twitter can help you keep up with current events and news. 

But social media can have a hard side as well. Of course, it can suck up our time and make us zombies on our phones while real life goes on around us. But there can also be other effects.

Facebook can overwhelm us with nasty articles and bog us down with every single tragedy around the world.

Pinterest can cause us to feel envy over all the pretty things we don't have, the kitchens we will never get, or the parties we will never be able to through.

Instagram can make us feel like a failure when we compare ourselves to those other women who seem to have it all together.

And Twitter can tear us apart over nasty comments, fights, and unloving attitudes. 

I got to the point where I took most social media off of my phone. Obviously this has the added benefit of not taking as much of my time. But honestly I did it because I couldn't take what it was doing to my heart. It was causing me too much strife and heartache. 

So I took Facebook and twitter completely off my phone. I still have Pinterest because it's handy to pull up a recipe or something on the go (and I don't personally struggle with that one being a time suck). And I still have Instagram because it's my very favorite form of social media, it's very encouraging to me, and it's not a huge time suck. 

So take a really hard and honest look at your social media streams. Should you turn off notifications through out the day so you don't get constantly pulled away from your famil...