My Grace-pacing Plan

Have you ever heard of a grace-pacing plan? I hadn't until about a year ago and I think it's a brialliant idea. This was mentioned to me by someone that I have a great respect and admiration for.

A grace-pacing plan is a plan by which you build things in to your daily life that encourage you to become a stronger person. Things that help you to maintain balance and structure. I didn't go in to much detail on this concept with the person that mentioned it to me, but I will tell you what it means to me, and subsequently, how I benefit from it.

The areas that tend to be easily neglected in my life are health/fitness, spiritual, marital and personal time. By nature of being a stay at home mom, I don't need to work in time to spend with my kids. In fact, if I didn't make a plan, that is all I would ever do. And while that is important, to be a balanced person, other aspects need to be focuses on as well.

I don't do this as often as I should or want to. But I will tell you, that when I take the time to put this plan in motion, I feel so much better. I feel stronger, more grounded, and I'm sure my husband feels more loved.

So, here's how I do it: I look at what I need in a week to strengthen my relationship with God. That may mean different things for different people. For some, it may mean getting to church one time a week. For others, it may be building in a daily devotional time and spending fifteen minutes in prayer. Again, different needs for different people, but find out what meets your spiritual needs and build it in to your week.

Next, and in no particular order, is making sure I exercise. if I don't put this on the calendar ahead of time, it usually won't happen. I feel pretty good if I get to the gym twice a week at this point, but I shoot for three. I try to exercise for thirty to forty-five minutes. Making it to the gym makes me feel physically strong, mentally balanced and self-empowering. (I plan on writing on that topic alone in the near future).

As far as the personal time goes, this can be after the kids go to bed, or when dh is home and I head out to the bookstore. As mothers and women in general, we so often focus on meeting others' needs that we forget to meet our own. I am a better mother and wife when I have time to read a book just for pleasure or take a nap without being interrupted. If I just hope that this will happen sometime during my week, it inevitably won't. I need to schedule it. Recently, I've hired a mother's helper to come over once a week and help out for a couple of hours and just play with the kids so I can sneak away to do whatever, whether it's writing, resting or even preparing dinner without a kid wrapped around my calf like a human leg-warmer.

As far as time with my husband goes, it is way too easy to let our lives become only about our children. Without being deliberate, dates and time alone fall by the wayside. Just recently, dh and I have started getting out about every other week for a night alone or with good friends. What I realize when we do this is that I still adore my husband. He still makes me laugh. Between hockey practice and fighting over who's turn it is to change the poopy diaper, it's easy to forget that. When I build this in to the grace-pacing plan, it stays a priority and adds a whole lot of wonderful to my life.

So there it is, folks. The long and short of it. Do you have any other things that you think would be beneficial to add in? Do you do something similar, but different? I want to hear about it! As I get older, I realize that life is more and more about being deliberate than anything else. It's about making positive choices and willing the life that we choose in to being.