Welcome to Day 19 of our Journey through “31 Days to Bless Your Family”!

Today’s theme is Margin. This has been a popular topic in the past several years, and if you’re not already familiar with it then you may not have much of it yourself, and it’s possible you may be on the brink of burn out.

Margin in itself is a blessing, and the more of it you learn to create and protect for yourself, the more of it you can use to Bless Your Family. That’s just the beginning. As you create and protect margin in your own life, the gift to your family multiplies because you are also beginning to model for them how to do it in their own lives.

I personally refer to margin as “bandwidth”. I have the bandwidth for example to write this series to help you Bless Your Family because I have learned it is better to say “No” to other things, and prioritize saying “Yes” to what matters most – like my personal values of Faith, Family, and Freedom.

[shareable cite=”Richard Swensen M.D.”]Margin is the space between our load and our limits and is related to our reserves and resilience. It is a buffer, a leeway, a gap; the place we go to heal, to relate, to reflect, to recharge our batteries, to focus on the things that matter most.[/shareable]

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If you think about the bandwidth of a single device, like your smart phone, or a single network like your wifi at home or work or a coffee shop, you can quickly recall how slow everything runs. The bandwidth you need may freeze up and could even cause a shut down. It’s painful. It’s frustrating. It’s crippling. And there’s nobody experiences blessing when that happens. Right?!

When that happens you need to reboot, start over, reconnect. But that doesn’t fix the problem. Only freeing up the bandwidth by running fewer demands on limited resources does that. And when you increase your bandwidth, when you run with more margin in your life then you are free to operate at your best, perform at your best, and give your best.

Just imagine how much more blessing your marriage and family can experience when everyone has more margin, more bandwidth. Imagine how you can better Bless Your Family when everyone begins to experience less stress and drain, and increased peace and energy. How would life be different for each of you if you could focus with greater clarity, apply yourselves to your highest priorities, values, and strengths?

In this Lifehacker article, “Why You Need More Margin in Your Life“, Sean Johnson says that margin needs to be cultivated and he lists several ideas to start taking back some if it in our lives.

Michael Hyatt shares in his post about margin, “How to Create More Margin in Your Life“, how he needed to get control of his calendar. Michael describes how to use his “Ideal Week” to plan what matters most. I’m currently using Michael’s “Focus Planner” which incorporates “My Ideal Week” in its planning tools, and you can see some links for him in this short post I did on goals. Michael is one of the top leaders in productivity and performance, author of the best sellers, “Living Forward” and “Your Best Year Ever“. Michael models well his core values and priorities as a man of faith, devoted to his family, and running an incredible business. If anyone is employing margin to get what matters most done, then it is definitely him. And if it can be done, then it can be done by us too!

Every YES is a NO to something else. Say YES to your marriage and family, and NO to lesser things that distracts or eliminates or diminishes from Blessing Your Family. Are there areas you can immediately identify that would help create more margin for your marriage and family? How might your family work together to increase bandwidth at home so you can focus together on what matters most?

Today’s “Dares and Prayers” shared in the video:

• Love Dare – “Impossible (without God)“
• Love Dare For Parents – “Protects“
• Power of a Praying Husband, Pray for – “Her Obedience“
• Resolution – “to Demonstrate Love“
• 31 Days of Building Your Family Values, Bible App Devotions – “Stewardship“
• Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives

 

<YouTube video coming soon> 

 

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Special Thanks to Kendrick Brothers Productions for their books The Love Dare, The Love Dare for Parents, and The Resolution for Men. You can check out their movies, books etc on their site. Their site recommends a local church finder at:

• TrueLife.orgwhich also links to a prayer online, chat or text site – ChatAboutJesus.com

For prayer from KLOVE Radio staff:

• Positive, Encouraging K-LOVE Radio – Submit a Prayer Request
• “You can also call [the] prayer line at 800-525-5683”