Priorities

Yesterday morning, an email popped in my inbox. It was an email encouraging the ladies in my book club for their continued commitment to the group. Long story short - show up or get out. Just in much nicer words.

At first, I will be honest and tell you that I was a little put off. I really don't like to think of myself as uncommitted to anything much less something as seemingly simple as a book club filled with amazing women from my neighborhood.

I decided to close the email and ponder on it for the day. I dropped my kids off for school, went to the gym, sat in the steam room and prayed about it. I love that steam room - can I just say that now? What an amazing perk in my life. Thank you hubby for providing such a nice lifestyle that I can sit in a steam room a couple times a week and just clear my head.

Digressing, yes.
Anyway, on the way to the gym I was on my cell phone. At the gym I saw at least 3 people I knew and ended up having a pretty great but lengthy conversation with one. Left the gym to pick up my son, picked up lunch and we met my mom in the park. Of course all while taking phone calls on my cell. At the park, I saw 2 friends. More talking.

Then home to answer emails and do some work. I'm not really positive if this has much to do with this post except that it seems I am in constant motion. That I ALWAYS have something to do. Which is why I love the steam room - nothing to do but sit.
As I walked in my room and noticed my unmade bed from that morning, I also noticed that on my nightstand are 3 books all with bookmarks in the MIDDLE of the books. Not one finished.

And this does not even include the bible study I am doing right now which actually is caught up for the week.

It occurred to me then that I was OVER-COMMITTED.

Oh, why why why do I think I can do everything?
The simple fact is that I can't. Well,maybe I can but not well. I needed to once again prioritize.

I say once again because I just went through this in the Fall. But as this new year started I committed to more. The pitfalls of my personality, I guess. It's not that I feel guilty and take on too much. It's that I really WANT to be a part of...well...everything!

So, I had to let the book club go. I will miss my time with these ladies and all the great books.

I suppose it would be a good idea to start with finishing the ones from the last two months first.

I woke up this morning and found this post from a Twitter friend. It was a great reminder of why I made a good decision to let something go. It's all about --Priorities. It was a great confirmation of the decision I made yesterday. (If you read it you will see that my book club had become the shells - the pretty things that fill your life but aren't really priorities)

My life is full of wonderful friends and family. It is full of activities that need to be priorities - first and foremost serving God and taking care of my family. While it is sad to let something go that I enjoyed, I know now I was not giving it my all, was not making it a priority and was letting my book club friends down.

So, I'm just thinking that being a grown up is hard to do some days. How about you? How do you keep the stuff in your life prioritized?