Food preparation and meal planning is a very large portion of my stay at home mom job. But I don't like it. I think my time would be better served climbing a tall tree, reading a good book with a glass of wine...or anything else.
Surprisingly I have almost as hard a time carving out a piece of my life for Jesus. I listen to a lot of teaching by podcast and audible book while I clean house, because I go crazy if I have nothing to occupy my mind. But taking intentional time to sit and worship in His Presence? Tough. It doesn't matter that I know it would be better for me to practice time with Him consistently, the voices outside my head are louder than the Voice in my heart. Even more truthfully, I find it hard to make myself shut up when I finally do take the time for Him. Just like it is hard for a rich man to enter the Kingdom or a camel to go through the eye of a needle, it is unbelievably hard for a thinker to stop thinking.
Fortunately the Holy Spirit has had mercy on me and usually talks to me outside my intellectual ramblings, usually through friends, dreams, pictures and music. But it's not enough. I'm absolutely certain that I will stay hungry until I eat, and I am absolutely convinced that He has something special for me in that quiet place. I have to choose the better thing.
It helps me to think about meal planning as part of "my job." I haven't had a real job in a while, but my husband does and he has to show up and do certain things at work or else someone would notice. (I am sure that Dwayne does his work, first, for the glory of the Lord and not because his boss would notice if he didn't... but you get my point.) I enjoy a lot more freedom working at home. I don't have an overseer, but it helps me to imagine that meal planning is like "showing up" at work or that it's one of those mundane tasks at work that I don't really have to choice about because I usually hate it, too. :)
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