Am I Distracted?

July 13, 2019 Cathleen Zahradnik

NOTE: This article appears in the summer edition of “The Encourager”, a quarterly publication for ministry women in the New Your MInistry Network.

Martha gets bad a rap. The truth is, as committed Christ-followers, we are all Martha. We may not want to admit it or we may totally and hopelessly own it, but when it comes to serving Jesus we are so much more about getting it done than just being at His feet as Mary is described in Luke 10:38-42. But aren’t we supposed to serve Him whole-heartedly? He’s worth it, isn’t He? What’s wrong with falling into bed exhausted…every night…because of my ministry and family responsibilities?

Martha didn’t have it all wrong. In fact, she had a lot right. But when Jesus corrected Martha it wasn’t her behavior He was correcting. It was her priority. Notice I used that word in the singular. The word “priorities" is actually a relatively new one. Originally the word was singular, meaning the ONE important thing. Martha was “distracted with much serving” (v. 40) and after her request to Jesus for Mary’s help Jesus told her, “One thing is needed and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her." Jesus redirected Martha’s priority.

There is always a danger for those of us who serve of being distracted by our service.

Taming Your Too-Long To-Do List: Practical Advice for An Over-filled Schedule

July 6, 2019 Cathleen Zahradnik

When I was a young mom I often came to the end of my day wondering what I had accomplished. I was busy every moment, but seemed to have nothing to show for it! That is when I started using a planner. I wrote down all the things that I needed to do that day and checked them off as I completed them. At least at the end of the day I could see that I really did finish something! The problem is that I never finished all of it. Even now, in spite of knowing that I am loved by God regardless of what I do, my tasks don’t go away. I still come to the end of the day without fully discharging my to-do list. It can be difficult not to feel like I’ve failed. Maybe you feel that way, too. So, then what do we do about it? How do we tame our too-long to-do list?

Here’s the truth that must be confronted first: You really cant’t do it all regardless of what any ad campaign tells you. You are not invincible. You are not a robot. You have limits and you can’t do it all. You have limited energy, limited capacity to act, limited abilities. Someone else will always be able to do more and do it better, but that doesn’t mean you are less. It just means you are you.

I heard a great illustration to help determine our own capacity: What kind of plate are you? Are you a turkey platter, with the capacity to fit a lot on your plate? Or are you a dinner plate, still a lot of room, but not as much? Maybe you are a dessert plate. Not much room, but space for something sweet. In order to determine what to expect of yourself you need to understand your own capacity. Your capacity helps you determine what should stay on your plate and what can wait.

I am not a turkey platter, but I’m not a dessert plate either. I have learned to recognize and accept that I can’t do as much as some other people and have stopped pushing myself to fit more on my plate. As I have begun to recognize and work within my limits I find myself less exhausted, more productive and more satisfied in what I am able to accomplish. What kind of plate are you?

So, here are some tips for taming your too-full task list so that you can work within your capacity:

Too Many Tasks, Not Enough Time

June 29, 2019 Cathleen Zahradnik

At times It seems like my to-do list is longer than a road trip from New York to Miami. There is no way that I can get it all done and at the end of the day I feel like I failed because I didn't. That doesn’t seem right. Do I really need to do all that stuff? What am I doing it for anyway? Does it really matter? I want to pursue excellence, but how is it possible when there is so much to do? How can I do it all well? What if I mess something up?

You and I are faced with a myriad of tasks every day as we take care of our families, our businesses and ourselves. Dear Friend, it can be hard to keep our focus. There is so much pressure, internal and external, to produce, to accomplish, to succeed. It is easy to feel overwhelmed, but let me give you a tip. God is more interested in who you are than what you do. I know. It’s a shocker! He isn’t grading you on how much you do. His evaluation of you is so different.

Remember a few things as you approach your schedule.

Waves of Trouble, Words of Grace

June 22, 2019 Cathleen Zahradnik

Ahhh! The beach! I love it! Honestly, I don’t love to swim in the ocean, but I do love to stand at the shore and feel the waves on my feet or to walk barefoot along the warm sand just at the water line. Sometimes, if the water is warm, I might even sit on the sun-heated sand and let the waves wash over me. That is a peaceful and soothing experience, but the waves also remind me of a difficult truth that we all need to grapple with. As much as we would hope otherwise, life is hard. Trouble comes at us in waves. Some waves just lap at our feet. Some waves push us a little off balance but we quickly regain footing. And sometimes it seems like the waves will pull us under and drown us. I don’t know what hard thing you are going through right now, or maybe you are between hard things in a lull. Whichever the case, it’s a good time to get ready for the next wave. How do you plant your feet before the waves hit so that you don’t fall over? How do you keep yourself anchored in the midst of the onslaught so that you aren’t overwhelmed by the circumstances?

Earlier in my life, when the waves of trouble would break, I felt like the surge of trial would knock me over. But as the years have passed I have made some discoveries that have helped me through, tools for staying upright when the swells come. (Remember, it is when, not if) I recently shared with you about a lost ministry position that turned our lives upside down. That in itself was not the most difficult part of the season. My husband’s struggle with severe depression was the heart of the storm. The strongest waves came from that quarter and were continual even before the ministry loss.

How Do I Get Through This?

June 15, 2019 Cathleen Zahradnik

What do you do when it seems like getting through the day is all you can do? Before I go any further, let me say this: Your first step is to just keep going. 2000 was an extremely difficult year for my husband and I. Internal struggles led to a change in circumstance that rocked my world. The ministry position that we held disappeared like a retracted plank. We were falling, groundless, uncertain of where we would land. The future I had envisioned evaporated. The lack of certainty unleashed fear. Where would we go? How would we live? What was the future now?

Having young children anchored me. I had to keep going, getting them to school, making their meals, getting them bathed and in bed. Even with that, I think I literally cried for three days. But there came a point in my crying conversations with God when I sensed His voice saying, “Enough.” I had cried enough. I had mourned enough. It was time to remember my focus. It was time to remember that God’s purpose for me was not finished even though this ministry position was. It was time to remember that I don’t live for myself or my own idea of purpose. It was time to remember that my first purpose is to live for God’s glory and honor Him in my choices and emotions.

Remember when I encouraged you to write a purpose statement? (Link to post) Now, halfway through the year and in the midst of all your unexpected events, is the time to go grab the index card or post-it note you wrote it on or the journal you wrote it in and put it in front of your eyes every day. You are facing obstacles. Perhaps the ground has disappeared from beneath your feet similar to what I experienced. Those obstacles and the instability of your circumstances aren’t what is most important.

Half-Way To Where?

June 8, 2019 Cathleen Zahradnik

Look back. Youve come further than you think..png

when you set goals? When you looked at the new year with hope and expectation? There’s a good chance that the year hasn’t turned out the way you expected,. Has it? How far have you gotten toward accomplishing your goals? Are you discouraged? Dear Friend, I want to encourage you to step back and look back. You might be surprised at just how much progress you have made.

Mid-year is a good time to review. Back in January I posted about letting God help you choose one word to focus on as the theme of your year. (Tap here for a link to that post.) The summary is to allow God to guide you to one word that He wants to use to shape your approach to life for the year. Rather than creating a list of goals that you might not accomplish, let one word guide the work God wants to do on the inside. It isn’t too late to pray over and choose one word to shape the rest of 2019.

Mid-year is a great time to refocus on what really matters. God knows the changes He wants to make inside you. His goals for you may be different than your goals for you. Early in the year I also wrote encouraging you to focus on the changes that really make a difference, the ones on the inside (link here) What are some of the changes God has been working on in you? Do those changes conflict with the goals you set for yourself? It’s okay! What God is doing in you is going to make a bigger difference than anything you had hoped to do.

Remember, imperfect progress is still progress. Mid-year is also a great time to look back and see how far you have come. Two steps forward and one step back still keeps you ahead of where you were! Think about where you were in January. If you are even one step beyond where you were, you have advanced. You really have come further than you think..

My one word for this space this year has been PERSEVERANCE. It’s been my goal to encourage you to persevere in following God and His purposes for you. I decided to look back over our weeks together and pull out our themes from the past weeks. I was encouraged as I looked back and I hope you will be, too! Here are some of the encouragements from past posts.

Not Easy, But Satisfying

June 1, 2019 Cathleen Zahradnik

What is God up to? Do you ever wonder that? You are being as faithful as you know how, but it seems like nothing is going right. You look back on your life. You think about all that you imagined it would be. You had imagined a lane bordered with flowers, wonderful scents, glorious colors, bright sunshine. What you see as you look back is more like a grey muddy path lined with rocks and brush. Why, God? Did I do something wrong? Did I take a wrong turn? What do I need to change? This is not the life I imagined at all! What am I supposed to do?

Tell God all about how you feel. The best thing you can do is bring God your questions. I remember doing that behind the wheel of a car. It was a long drive. I can’t even remember where I was going, but the prolonged drive time was a welcome opportunity to ponder and pray. God and I covered many miles and multiple topics as I made my way closer to my destination. It had been a particularly difficult season in our lives personally and professionally. Our kids were young which carries it’s own brand of struggle and exhaustion. Driving a car where only the driver’s seat was occupied was a welcome oddity. I found a freedom in uninterrupted, unfiltered conversation as God and I traveled together.

I Can’t, God! It’s Too Hard!

May 25, 2019 Cathleen Zahradnik

Go clean up your room!” So begins the saga of distraction. The child drags his feet with each step as he makes his way to what would normally be his haven. He sits in the middle of the room and stares at the mess around him. Then, after a few moments, rather than cleaning, he picks up the shiny blue matchbox car just within reach and starts to play with it. The room is still a mess. Nothing gets done, but the child feels better because he has distracted themself from the overwhelming task at hand.

You and I do the same thing, don’t we? We distract ourselves when the task seems overwhelming. Not just with practical tasks, but with the things we know God wants to change in our lives. We do something that makes us feel better, but we avoid actually starting.

What is it that God might want to change in your life? Perhaps you feel God has called you to an area of service that intimidates you. Or maybe, and this happens most often, through His Word and His Spirit God has pinpointed an area that needs some character development. Ouch! I know that feeling! But the idea of changing a deeply ingrained habit or attitude seems too large and overwhelming, so, like the child in the middle of a messed up room, we sit and feel sorry for ourselves or distract ourselves from the enormity of the needed change. If you are like me you might pick up your phone and start researching “how to overcome” _________(fill in the blank.) I might even start reading Scriptures about it. I feel like I have done something about the issue, but take no further action. It seems hopeless so, consciously or unconsciously, I decide to do something else. There is the nagging awareness that I am not obeying God. However, my attention on other things dulls that awareness. I feel better, for a while, but have moved nowhere. Does that sound familiar?

So, How do we even get started on those big changes? Here are some tips to make the mountain of change scalable.

Where Will Your YES Take You?

May 18, 2019 Cathleen Zahradnik

I first told God I was willing to go and serve Him on foreign soil at the first missions conference I ever experienced. Tom and I were living in Pensacola, Florida and were in our mid-twenties. Yet, the opportunity did not immediately come for me to actually go anywhere. In 2008 I was praying and asking God for an opportunity. “I’ll go anywhere!”I said. When my husband received an invitation to go on a trip because of his ministry position I asked hopefully, “Can I go, too?” I was overjoyed when the answer was affirmative. Then I thought to ask, “Where are we going?” I was surprised to find that my desire to obey the Lord’s call to “go into all the world” had overshadowed any limits on where. I had given God my YES in advance.

I’ll bet you are wondering where we went.

Repost - 80 Years of Beauty: Four Things I’ve Learned From My Mom

May 11, 2019 Cathleen Zahradnik

I didn’t actually realize how much I learned from my mom until I sat down to write this post last October. It seemed appropriate to share it again in honor of Mother’s Day. Regardless of what kind of relationship you have had with your mother, take some time this weekend to think aout what you have learned from her and be grateful. If you are a mother, have faith that your kids are learning more from you than they realize. Dear friend, whoever you are, your life makes a difference.

Here’s the post:

There are milestones in life that need to be celebrated. Some of them are expected and hoped for. Others creep up on you and you shake your head, “How did I get here?!” Mom turned 80 last week on October 19. When I spoke with her on that day, it was clear that this is one of those milestones for her. I mean, think about it, Mom was three years old when Pearl Harbor was bombed and the US entered World War II. Imagine all that has changed in her lifetime! From the telephone to television, to space travel to computers to the Internet and social media. A lot has changed!

So, Mom, how did you get here? You kept going and didn’t give up. You have lived your life one step at a time. You may think of your life as small and unimportant, but I’d like to share a few things I’ve learned from you. You need to know that your life has made a difference. So, here goes!

August 15, 2026

How to Win the War Within (Repost)

'Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. ' Colossians 3:1-2

You’ve left the room, but the argument is not over. Your thoughts are stuck in a loop. The same hurtful exchange of words flashes across your mind over and over and over. You can’t seem to reset your inner replay. All the emotions that should have stayed in that room follow you everywhere you go. Hurt and anger continue to shout in your ears. Your heart rate is through the roof. Hot anger rises in your flushed face. The war is far from over.

Your inner screening room then begins playing out possible outcomes for a future exchange. You don’t really know what will happen, but your mind is already strategizing your next offensive in the war of words. Your emotions rise and fall with every imagined interaction. When you hurl an imagined barb at your intended target proud and triumphant vindictiveness rises to the surface. You feel all the emotions of a situation that hasn’t really happened and then you carry that resentment into the next conversation which turns into another altercation. Your emotions have become attached to an unreality. Nothing actually happened before you walked into the room. Do you truly want to spend your emotional energy on something that isn’t even real?