I am so excited I could burst. Why? Because this is what happens when I read words in a book that I know God is using to speak directly to me. The words speak so loudly and resonate in my spirit to confirm the workings of God in my life for the season I am in. Words that ground me, direct me, encourage me and say, “Keep going, you are on the right path.” Yay, for that! I feel like a child who just found a lost favorite toy.

Really. This is why books are mentors to me. This is why the title is worthy of a place in my menu. Because books really do contain messages I need to hear, see, read, and live. I think of them as sermons instructing me on the ways of God. So, with that said, judiciously and prayerfully I select the books I am to invest my time in reading. They must bring me toward the same God-given purpose of fulfilling my calling of a life-lived-well as wife and mama.

Saying yes to something means saying no to another. Time spent is always at the cost of something. Knowing how to say yes to the right things and no to the right things, is the true essence of living purposefully. When I look back at how I spent my life, instead of being burdened with the anguish of regret over the time squandered and wasted opportunities and relationships neglected, living purposefully, I can look back with exceeding joy and rejoice over the incredible memories created, the fruit born of investing every bit of the talent God has given me for His glory, and the amazing legacy I have left to my children and children’s children and so on.

As I am reading, Organized Simplicity by Tsh Oxenreider, I find these words of sound wisdom that invigorate my soul…

...the different parts of your life line up in the same direction, and that direction is pointed toward your life’s purpose. All the independent things in your life–the items you own, how you spend your time, the relationships you cultivate, and the books you read, ultimately benefit your life’s purpose. There is no clutter. Your hours and days reflect your priorities and so does the space in which you live.

So organization isn’t just about stuff being in order. Life abundantly CAN be lived without stuff, and probably more so! And de-cluttering my life in every aspect will open me up to having a clearer and more defined focus, walking this straight and narrow in the right direction, fulfilling a life whose end will hear,

“Well done good and faithful servant.”

And this energizes me so much more than coffee.