Some of you who took the last column to heart may have attacked your farm offices to tidy them up, get organized, and now have a beautiful space to work in. January is typically the month when we are encouraged to pick new goals, write them down, and be transformed with new habits.

For 2011 my theme word is “pacing”.  I had help with this one this time as my farm coach friend Mandi McLeod from New Zealand was visiting our farm in November. She knows my work, my passion to serve farm families, and my tendencies to work too much.

Pacing to me means being really clear on what is important, and being able to leave the rest.  It is understanding that each new day is a gift, and sometimes you have to allow for divine interruption. There’s a soothing quote from a professor’s door that Tim Wiebe presents in his treasury, “Let us be firmly resolved to serve God with our whole heart and life, beyond that, let us have no care about tomorrow. Let us only think of living today as well as we can. Then, when tomorrow comes, it will also be today. And we can apply the same philosophy for another 24 hours.”

I’ve printed that encouragement out, and it sits in the front of my day timer as a constant reminder to pace myself, one day at a time. Continue reading Pacing through the Overwhelm »