15 Minutes to Change Your Life

 

 

This blog was written by my beautiful friend, Misty Krasawski. You can follow her mommy journey (she is a young, hip, momma of eight) on www.encouragingbeautifulmotherhood.com

 

 

 

If you’re a woman trying to keep up with a home, you’ve probably heard of Flylady. Marla Cilly has developed a fun online persona, a book, and a wonderful website that encourages women to change the way they think about housecleaning. One of her major mantras is, “You can do ANYTHING for 15 minutes!” And right she is. During my last few pregnancies I took her advice to heart and tried to spend just 15 minutes at the top of every hour doing *something* to straighten my house (or “bless” it, as she would say!) even during my bad season of morning sickness. And it worked! I still set a timer for cleaning sessions and find it makes a huge difference in how much work I can accomplish. Something about the idea of it being “only fifteen minutes” is very powerful.
I was thinking about that during one of those speed clean sessions last week, and suddenly thought …

If 15 minutes can transform a room, what might it do to change a life?

Tackling my home 15 minutes at a time gets two things going for me: it gives me a solid goal as I work on a particular project, and it lets me know that project isn’t going to take forever. Those are the two things that are at the heart of life management, aren’t they? Knowing something is being accomplished, and knowing there’s an end to the time I have to work on it.

Isn’t that a chunk of why it can be so difficult to make a quiet time happen?

Everyone knows we’re supposed to be studying our Bibles and praying. And we also have a sense that the more time we spend at it, the better. We want to be changed. We want to become more like Jesus. We want to grow.
But how on earth do you measure that? How do you know when you’re *done*? I suppose the answer is when you stand before Jesus. And that’s an awful long time away. What sort of motivation do you really have to even get started on a process you don’t really expect to see the end of? I think the nebulous quality of “sanctification” makes it pretty difficult to grasp, and certainly removes a chunk of the inspiration to begin.
When I hear tales of someone spending hours on their knees in prayer, I have to admit I’m impressed. And then feel guilty. Because I *don’t* ever pull off hours on my knees! My mind is going 80 directions after 5 minutes, plus my knees would hurt and I don’t even have any carpet in this house. We’re all incredibly busy. If there are little ones around your home, minutes are precious–and just finding a few is a tricky thing! If you got on your knees, someone would probably take it as an invitation to climb up on your back, right?
Think about it for just a moment, though. Here’s the truth: the God of the universe waits for you. He waits for you to wake up so He can talk to you. He wants to encourage you, teach you, strengthen you for the day ahead. He wants to whisper in your ear, highlight a scripture, give you the answer to that difficult problem you’re facing.

Could you start with fifteen minutes, mama? Could you block out just a quarter of an hour and ask Him to fill it?

Could you sit with your Bible and perhaps a notebook and pen … light a candle, pour your first cup of coffee or tea … and consider it a “date”?
I’ve seen “miracles” occur around my house when I block out fifteen minutes to focus on it–and my house is just a thing. What if you took fifteen minutes and focused on your heart, with God?

My guess is that it would change your life.

And who doesn’t need a little of that?