“It is a trap to dedicate something rashly and only later to consider one’s vows.”
Proverbs 20:25 (NIV)
Sometimes life seems to surge ahead at a breakneck speed—and it can be hard to know how to slow it down. One way you can slow your life down to a more manageable level is this: Learn to pause and pray before making a decision.
Proverbs 20:25 says, “It is a trap to dedicate something rashly and only later to consider one’s vows” (NIV).
What is God saying in this verse? He’s telling you to ponder before promising. Deliberate before deciding. Muse before you choose. Reflect before you select.
In other words, pause and pray before adding to your schedule. Consider your commitments prayerfully and carefully. That will slow your life down.
I’ve had to learn this truth the hard way: You can’t keep adding commitments to your schedule without eliminating other things. Every time you add a new activity to your calendar, you need to take something else off.
If you’re burning the candle at both ends, you’re not as bright as you think you are. In fact, you’re going to burn out!
Do you have a hard time cutting out activities from your schedule? Next time you’re faced with an opportunity, take time to do these three things:
1. Ask, “Is it worth it?” Is it worth your time, energy, effort, reputation, or money?
2. Ask, “What am I going to give up?” Consider the cost.
3. Learn to say “no.” It’s the greatest time-saver in life!
God didn’t create you with the capacity to sustain faster and faster speeds with an increasingly packed schedule. So next time you’re faced with a possible addition to your calendar, stop to pause and pray.
Globalization and the attendant concerns about poverty and inequality have become a focus of discussion in a way that few other topics, except for international terrorism or global warming, have. Most people have a strong opinion on globalization, and all of them express an interest in the well-being of the world's poor. The financial press and influential international officials confidently assert that global free markets expand the horizons for the poor, whereas activist-protesters hold the opposite belief with equal intensity. Yet the strength of people's conviction is often in inverse proportion to the amount of robust factual evidence they have.As is common in contentious public debates, different people mean different things by the same word. Some interpret "globalization" to mean the global reach of communications technology and capital movements, some think of the outsourcing by domestic companies in rich countries, and others see globalization as a byword for
Comments