I can’t think of a time in my life when young women have had more activities piled on their proverbial plates. There’s school, of course. There are extracurricular activities—drama, band, debate, student government, sorority, you name it. There are sports, and for many folks that means a school team and a league or travel team. There are part-time jobs. There are responsibilities at home. There are regular workouts at the gym. There are dance lessons and voice lessons and college entrance exam classes. There are Bible studies and youth groups and mission trips and church camps. And then there’s homework and studying, which, according to most of the girls I talk to, can be an overwhelming task at times.
Plus, somewhere in the middle of all of that, there’s supposed to be a social life. Family time. Quality time with friends.
And when you start to consider not just the number of activities that high school and college-aged girls are supposed to cram into a given week, but also the intensity and the demands of those activities, well, you can’t help but jump to the conclusion that most girls between ages fifteen and twenty-two can sleep two nights a week for approximately four hours each. But that’s it. That’s all the sleeping the schedule will allow.
It seems like a crazy amount of responsibility to carry, right? But at the same time, it’s the reality for a whole lot of people. And for the most part, lots of people who are maintaining these sorts of schedules are doing everything they can to honor the Lord with their excellence and their efforts. They’re conscientious, they’re high-achieving, and they’re trying to give all of their various interests everything they have.
That’s why I almost hate to bring up this tiny dose of reality for fear that it may seem discouraging.
But I’m going to say it anyway.
You really can have it all, motivated people. You really can.
But you absolutely, one hundred percent cannot have it all AT THE SAME TIME.
It’s not possible. Nobody is built to run at the kind of pace that so many high school and college girls are running. It’s not sustainable. It’s not healthy. It’s not wise.
And there’s a legitimate spiritual danger in the mix, too, because you can do all of these things and try to prioritize all these things and love all of these things and commit all these things to the Lord—and then miss the Lord entirely. Seriously. You can be so busy managing your schedule and trying to achieve your goals and essentially reducing your life to an exhausting list of what you “need” to do that you miss the sacred, every day joys of spending time with Jesus. Of abiding. Of sitting at His feet, so to speak, and talking with Him. Listening to Him. Slowing down long enough to rest in Him.
So as you consider the next stage of your life, as you pray about where to direct your attention and your efforts, ask the Lord to make you aware of your deep need to seek Him above everything else. It won’t be anything you list on a résumé, it won’t elevate your GPA, and it may mean that a few things you want to do have to take a backseat for a season. But you’ll never regret the peace of walking in growing intimacy with your heavenly Father.
Ultimately He is the only “all” you need.
1. Do you ever feel over-involved or over-programmed? Explain.
2. Are there certain activities that you think you need to do even though you don’t want to do them?
3. How important is “down time” to you? Do you prioritize it? Or do you feel lazy if your day isn’t scheduled to the max?
4. Do you identify more with Mary or with Martha? Explain.
Today’s Prayer