![\"12.16.14\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/mtvpastor\/files\/2014\/12\/12.16.14-1024x685.jpg\")
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1.\u00a0Have a Quiet Time everyday.\u00a0<\/strong>This helps me develop spiritual margin. You may call it something else. I grew up calling it a Quiet Time. It\u2019s a time when you get away from everything else and spend time with Jesus. \u2018Quiet\u2019 means that there\u2019s no distractions. \u2018Time\u2019 means it\u2019s meaningful, not just a quick prayer on the way to work or school. Once again, this isn\u2019t some rigid rule that if you break God is mad at you. It\u2019s for your benefit. If you spend time with Jesus everyday by reading his Word, praying, singing songs, meditating on Scripture, it helps you. It gets your mind right. It gets your heart right. It gets your soul right. And remember, everything builds off of your relationship with God. Build margin here, and everything else benefits.<\/p>\n2. Just say \u2018no.\u2019\u00a0<\/strong>This helps me develop personal margin. If you don\u2019t know how to say \u2018no\u2019 when you need to, all your other margins get messed up. Jesus even points to this as a deeply spiritual issue. \u00a0Here\u2019s what he says:\u00a0You are consumed by the approval of other men, longing to look good in their eyes; and yet you disregard the approval of the one true God.<\/em>\u00a0John 5:44 (VOICE)<\/p>\nSome people can\u2019t say \u2018no\u2019 to others. That\u2019s a problem. Our inability to say \u2018no\u2019 to others impedes our ability to say \u2018yes\u2019 to God. Now obviously I\u2019m not saying be a brute, I\u2019m saying establish margins. No one else will establish margins for us. We have to do it. We have to take responsibility for ourselves. We have to be willing to disappoint others and say \u2018no\u2019 when necessary.<\/p>\n
3. Sleep and exercise.\u00a0<\/strong>This creates physical margin. We need this. Eight\u00a0hours a day we need to sleep. Those are some pretty big margins. I think God was trying to make a point. A third of your life devoted to rest. It\u2019s a constant, daily reminder that we need rest. We were created to live within the margins. It\u2019s when we disregard margins that life starts going sideways on us.<\/p>\nExercise is just as important. If our bodies aren\u2019t healthy, everything else suffers. We need to stay in shape. Some jobs require physical effort. Mine doesn\u2019t. I sit behind a desk. I need to exercise to stay healthy. If we don\u2019t have time to exercise, go back to number 2. Say \u2018no\u2019 to something else. Your physical health is that important. If you don\u2019t have energy to exercise, exercise anyways. If you wait until you \u2018feel\u2019 like exercising, you\u2019ll be waiting awhile. Good exercise and good sleep gives you the energy you need for the day. Your body needs that physical margin.<\/p>\n
4. Fall out of love with social media<\/strong>. This may seem weird but it\u2019s something we struggle with today. Our parents and grandparents didn\u2019t struggle with it. We need technological margin. There have been several studies that have shown that social media can be just as addictive as smoking, drugs and alcohol. If you\u2019re on social media all the time, that\u2019s a problem. It\u2019s stealing you from what\u2019s important and replacing it with what\u2019s useless. A study in 2012 actually showed that the more social networks you\u2019re linked to, the more likely the social media will be a source of stress by trying to keep up with it all.<\/p>\nI\u2019m not saying get off of social media forever. I\u2019m just saying develop some margins. Fall out of love with it. I did several years ago. I have a Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram account. I never get on Twitter or Instagram, and I get on Facebook an average of less than 10 minutes a day. Now I\u2019m active online because that\u2019s where people are, but I schedule all my posts through Hootsuite and then forget about it. Social media is not the end all. It\u2019s not the answer. We need to develop margins here.<\/p>\n
5. Give \u2018presence\u2019 more than \u2018presents\u2019.\u00a0<\/strong>This is connected to Christmas. We\u2019re in the season of the year where we everyone starts focusing on getting gifts for each other. Gifts are fine and good, but what your kids, your family wants more than gifts is you. They want you to be present. This plays off of the last one. Once we fall out of love with social media and don\u2019t need to be connected all the time, we remember what\u2019s really important. Parents, your kids would love gifts, sure. But what they really want is you, present. Not just you at home with your face stuck in your phone or watching tv. When you practice presence with those you care for, being there, being attentive, removing distractions, you actually create the emotional and relational margin needed for healthy relationships to thrive. So, put your phone down.<\/p>\n6. Go \u2018off the grid\u2019 regularly.\u00a0<\/strong>That means periodically, removing yourself from everything and just giving yourself time to think. This develops mental margin. One of the greatest downsides of technology today is that we\u2019re always connected. Our brains never get a chance to rest and just be. Research shows that our brains are wired to need rest. If we never unplug and go off the grid, we may experience negative self-esteem, depression, worry, anxiety and health issues, all the opposite of rest. It\u2019s why I\u2019ve talked to a lot of folks who love to hunt and they say what they love isn\u2019t just the hunting, it\u2019s the unplugging, giving your mind a chance to rest. It\u2019s how we\u2019re designed.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s why years ago Robin and I made the decision to take the TV out of our bedroom. We were finding that with the tv in the room, we\u2019d watch tv rather than talk with each other, we\u2019d get less sleep because we\u2019d be up late watching useless shows. Our minds would never get the chance to rest. However you need to, find a way to get off the grid regularly. Your mind is designed to need rest, just like the rest of you. If you never disconnect, your mind won\u2019t find rest.<\/p>\n
7. Downsize your life.\u00a0<\/strong>This is financial margin. Quit buying stuff you don\u2019t need. Quit over-leveraging yourself and making yourself miserable. Develop a budget and stick to it. Find your worth in God, not in stuff. Learn to say \u2018no.\u2019 Here\u2019s what Paul tells Timothy in the New Testament:\u00a0For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.<\/em> 1 Timothy 6:10<\/p>\nWhen we don\u2019t have financial margins, we make ourselves miserable. When we are content with what we have, we find rest. And it means some hard decisions. Two years ago Robin and I decided to cut the cord and drop Directv. It was a tough decision. We were a platinum member. We\u2019d been with them for 12 years. We weren\u2019t sure we could survive without cable television. But the cost kept going up and we kept having babies so our priorities were elsewhere. We decided to go with Netflix instead. $7.99 a month. Can\u2019t beat it. Here\u2019s what we\u2019ve found. Yes, we miss some shows, but we\u2019ve survived. Now we have more financial margin in our lives and more time with them. Even more importantly, our kids are growing up without being bombarded with advertisements all day. The tv isn\u2019t there all the time, so they play more.<\/p>\n
When we begin to develop margins, everything benefits, and we begin to experience rest. Build margins in your life!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
God has placed margins (limits, boundaries) all around us. When we respect the margins around us, things tend to go well for us and we experience rest. When we push against the margins, life starts going sideways and we make ourselves miserable. Sunday I shared seven margins that have helped me experience rest and contentment […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2490,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[311,529,577,634,836,874,1206,1556],"class_list":["post-2412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-contentment","tag-food-for-thought","tag-god","tag-health","tag-life","tag-margins","tag-rest","tag-what-im-living"],"yoast_head":"\n
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When we respect the margins around us, things tend to go well for us and we experience rest.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newwineskins\/7-margins-that-have-given-me-rest\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"New Wineskins\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-12-16T13:29:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/mtvpastor\/files\/2014\/12\/12.16.14-1024x685.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Josh Daffern\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Josh Daffern\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newwineskins\/7-margins-that-have-given-me-rest\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newwineskins\/7-margins-that-have-given-me-rest\/\",\"name\":\"7 Margins That Have Given Me Rest\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newwineskins\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-12-16T13:29:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-12-16T13:29:05+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newwineskins\/#\/schema\/person\/760f46356a336d4ee50fd9574f10a58b\"},\"description\":\"God has placed margins (limits, boundaries) all around us. 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![\"12.16.14\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/mtvpastor\/files\/2014\/12\/12.16.14.jpg\")
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