I will forever be a paper planner person. Don’t try to convince me how easy a shared Google calendar is. Don’t try to wow me with the amazing things technology can do to manage my schedule or show me how much easier keeping track of events would be if I would just go digital. I won’t. I’m stubborn.
There’s just something so fulfilling about opening up that planner to a blank January and beginning to fill it with all that the coming year will hold (in pencil only, of course). Many are significant and special events like birthdays, vacations and trips, sports games and church events. Others are the mundane meetings, appointments and schedules to keep. And then there are the celebrations that bring the happy sads; the senior nights, the graduations, the weddings and the goodbyes. But whether significant or mundane, each event holds room in my planner, room in my life and ultimately room in my heart.
We make room for the things that are important to us.
In Matthew 22, Jesus is asked which command of the law holds the greatest value above all. Jesus replies in verses 37 and 38:
He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command.”
The greatest and most important command from Jesus is to love God with all that you have.
All your heart.
All your soul.
All your mind.
In the midst of the schedules and meetings, the tasks and never ending to-do lists, the events that keep us busy and people that take up room in our hearts and in our lives, are we intentionally creating and preparing room to love Jesus with all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our mind?
Or, if you’re like me, do you find that there are often too many times that we have put so much energy and effort into preparing room for everyone and everything else, that we give Jesus the leftovers of our heart, our soul and our mind?
As we turn the page on a new year, a year that is already full with so many happenings, it takes intentionality to prepare to spend the year with Jesus. Just as we make preparations for the events that take up room in our lives. It takes preparation and being purposeful. It takes spiritual rhythms. It takes accountability friends. It takes saying no to other things fighting for our time to ensure that we are truly loving our Savior with ALL that we have and all that we are.
Loving Jesus with all of our heart means having a heart set on loving and praising Him first and foremost. Loving Jesus with all our soul means spending time with him constantly in prayer and in quiet. Loving Jesus with all our mind means being intentional about spending time daily filling our minds with His word so that His word is hidden within our hearts.
As we approach all that 2025 has to hold, let every heart prepare Him room.
There’s just something so fulfilling about opening up that planner to a blank January and beginning to fill it with all that the coming year will hold (in pencil only, of course). Many are significant and special events like birthdays, vacations and trips, sports games and church events. Others are the mundane meetings, appointments and schedules to keep. And then there are the celebrations that bring the happy sads; the senior nights, the graduations, the weddings and the goodbyes. But whether significant or mundane, each event holds room in my planner, room in my life and ultimately room in my heart.
We make room for the things that are important to us.
In Matthew 22, Jesus is asked which command of the law holds the greatest value above all. Jesus replies in verses 37 and 38:
He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command.”
The greatest and most important command from Jesus is to love God with all that you have.
All your heart.
All your soul.
All your mind.
In the midst of the schedules and meetings, the tasks and never ending to-do lists, the events that keep us busy and people that take up room in our hearts and in our lives, are we intentionally creating and preparing room to love Jesus with all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our mind?
Or, if you’re like me, do you find that there are often too many times that we have put so much energy and effort into preparing room for everyone and everything else, that we give Jesus the leftovers of our heart, our soul and our mind?
As we turn the page on a new year, a year that is already full with so many happenings, it takes intentionality to prepare to spend the year with Jesus. Just as we make preparations for the events that take up room in our lives. It takes preparation and being purposeful. It takes spiritual rhythms. It takes accountability friends. It takes saying no to other things fighting for our time to ensure that we are truly loving our Savior with ALL that we have and all that we are.
Loving Jesus with all of our heart means having a heart set on loving and praising Him first and foremost. Loving Jesus with all our soul means spending time with him constantly in prayer and in quiet. Loving Jesus with all our mind means being intentional about spending time daily filling our minds with His word so that His word is hidden within our hearts.
As we approach all that 2025 has to hold, let every heart prepare Him room.
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