Foundation for Organization

By Marilyn Rockett

Are you among the majority of people who are busier than they would like to be? Most of us don’t live in just one small world. We are pulled in many directions by family needs, church, work and community, in addition to homeschooling, and we all do battle with how and where structure fits into our lives—the balance of too much or too little.

But every structure demands a firm foundation to hold its plan steady. No matter the method or organization skills you employ, the foundation needs a periodical check. God has created us uniquely different from each other. We will have our unique way to implement our plans, but the foundation is the same for every Christian.

There is a good bit of confusion about the definition of “organization.” Do you associate words such as meticulous, rigid, confining, scheduled, structured and more with getting organized? Often our idea of organization has a negative effect on our thinking. Then, because of our frustration, we abandon our well-intentioned efforts before we even begin. We know that we need “it,” but we aren’t sure what “it” is. Proverbs 23:7 tells us that the way a person thinks within himself, so he is. More often than not, we try to do before we know how to think.

May I challenge your thinking? Organization is NOT neatness, perfectionism, cleaning, rearranging, or having a Better Homes and Gardens home. Some of those things might be a by-product of organization, but they are not the essence of it. 

So what is organization? Let’s look at some components in order to frame a realistic and constructive definition and to give our foundation a thorough check-up. The definition isn’t about cleaning closets or emulating Martha Stewart, but it has a great deal to do with what God tells us in His Word.

First is the issue of design. God is a God of order. That seems a rather elementary idea since every young child in a Christian household learns about God’s world and order from the beginning of his training. The first chapter of Genesis tells us that God created time as part of His creation, and He called that creation good. But we need the reminders found throughout Scripture that time belongs to God. Places such as Psalm 31:15 where David says that his times are in God’s hands and Daniel 2:21 when Daniel acknowledges that God changes times and seasons remind us that God has ordered our time.

We see in the scope of Scripture that God has a plan for creation and our world. Psalm 33:11 (“The counsel of the LORD stands forever, The plans of His heart from generation to generation.”) and Isaiah 14:24,26 (“The LORD of hosts has sworn saying, ‘Surely, just as I have intended so it has happened, and just as I have planned so it will stand.’”) are just two of the places where we see that God has a design and a plan.

Also, with great detail and precision, He planned the tabernacle (Exodus 25-28) and the temple (1 Chronicles 28:11-13 and 2 Chronicles 3-4) for his chosen people. These were plans that foreshadowed His most wonderful plan for our redemption:

In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose (plan) of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. Ephesians 1:11

Because God made us in His image, we have the desire for form and order deep within us. Yes, it is buried very deeply for some of us, but it is there nevertheless. When we aren’t “organized” our frustration doesn’t rise just from the chaos and confusion, but also from the fact that we are out of sync with the way we are designed.

Second, God’s Word tells us to plan. I would love to have the luxury of doing what I want, when I want, and how I want, all the time. But the indulgence of that luxury usually leads me into traps of my own making—disorder, lack of productivity and prices to pay for my unwise choices. Isaiah 32:8 reminds me, “But the noble man devises noble plans; And by noble plans he stands.” My desire is to have a wise heart before God and he tells me in Ecclesiastes 8:5b-6a that a wise heart knows the proper time and procedure and that there is a proper time and procedure for everything.

However, my favorite Proverb about planning is Proverbs 14:22b “kindness and truth (will be to) those who devise (plan) good.” What a wonderful promise from a God who understands how we would rather not do what we need to do but gives us the encouragement to do it!

Next, God also meets our needs through plans—His and ours. Scripture is abundant with reminders that our needs are met in God’s plans and in the plans that He encourages us to make.

Small samples of those encouragements are found in the following verses: Psalm 20:4 “May He grant you according to your heart’s desire, and fulfill all your purpose (plan).” Psalm 90:12 “So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Pro 21:5a “The plans of the diligent (lead) surely to advantage.” Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans that I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.” And in the New Testament, Philippians 4:19 “And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” When we are conscious that God is busy meeting our needs and urging us to make plans that will benefit us and bring Him glory, we experience God’s deep peace that is the antidote to chaos.

Do you consider time your enemy? As the minutes squeeze your day tighter and tighter and you see that you have more to do than you have time for, do you complain about not having enough time, or do you wish there were more hours in a day? If you have toddlers, maybe you have wished for fewer hours in your day since the bedtime hour still seems much too far away for your exhausted body. As you witness your children growing up right before your eyes, do you wish you could stop time before some of those precious moments slip away?

It is in those instances that I have to remind myself that time is a gift. An Irish proverb states, “Time is so precious that it is dealt out to us in the smallest possible fractions—a tiny moment at a time.” We have a beautiful illustration of time passing in the picture of a delicate flower unfolding slowly. God protects us within the layers of time, unfolding each day lovingly and gently and revealing his perfect plans little by little for our lives.

Lastly, God teaches us to trust Him in the midst of our plans. He reminds us that He is the one in control, and we need to hold our plans very loosely in open hands allowing Him to change them when needed. He will often change our plans and ask us to trust Him in the process. Two places that show us that we must trust God’s sovereignty with our plans are Proverbs 16:9 “The mind of man plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps.” and James 4:13-15 “Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit. Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are (just) a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, (you ought) to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that."

God is never late—He is always on time! He brought that vividly home to me many years ago when I was pregnant with our third son. After numerous attempts and tears to get a beautiful, white, wooden changing table that I thought I had to have, I finally gave up. I had tried to convince my husband that I “needed” the piece of furniture, but he was adamant that we couldn’t purchase it at the time.

Then one day I saw one at a yard sale that was very similar to the one I had coveted in the local store. I couldn’t believe it! God seemed to be allowing me to purchase my heart’s desire for less money—much less! When I inquired, I learned that the changing table was already sold to someone else (a man), and he would return to pick it up. That seemed impossible; surely God wasn’t allowing me to find it only to snatch it away!

I somehow managed to write down my phone number in case he didn’t return for the table, but I doubted that God would grant me such a request. I had lost my faith that He would provide what I needed. Then the Holy Spirit convicted my heart, and I surrendered to God by asking Him to make me willing to accept His plan for me. I was willing to be willing, but I needed His help!

When the woman at the yard sale called a week later, I was taken by surprise. She announced that the man had never  returned even though he had paid for the table. She was moving that day and would leave the changing table on the street for me to pick up. If I didn’t get it, the garbage man would get it when he made his rounds.

You see, the Lord didn’t have plans to allow me to purchase an inexpensive changing table as I thought. He wanted to give me a changing table. He also wanted to urge me to trust Him when I couldn’t see the end of my own plan. It is a wise thing to allow God to teach us to use our time and plans in His way.

Now we can return to our definition of organization. Our foundation is in place—design (making our life “work” because we are functioning according to God’s design for us), plan (bringing the “dailyness” of life under control), obedience (yielding to the Holy Spirit by allowing God to meet our needs and change our plans), and wisdom (determining the wisest use of our time). Our definition could come together like this: Organization is making your life work most effectively by bringing the “dailyness” of life under control through yielding to the Holy Spirit in the wise use of your time.

That certainly isn’t the usual idea of “organization” or “time management.” Those choices and yielding to the Holy Spirit are a challenge to our rebellious hearts. But this definition shows us that the foundation must be in place if we are to live a life that honors and glorifies the Lord even while we clean closets.

Marilyn Rockett is a “graduated” homeschool mom of four grown sons and Mimi to six homeschooled grandchildren, teaching for fifteen years before the Rocketts ran out of sons to teach. She is a contributor to multiple books and is the author of Homeschooling at the Speed of Life, her latest book that provides encouragement and organizational helps with a scriptural emphasis. For more than twenty-five years, Marilyn has worked in the homeschool community locally, statewide, and nationally and has contributed articles to many publications. She is currently a regular columnist for Homeschooling Today® magazine and speaks at homeschool and Christian women’s events as well as presenting her own “Minding Your Time” seminars. Visit her website at www.MarilynRockett.com or contact her at Marilyn@MarilynRockett.com

This article is a reprint from the March/April 2003 issue of Homeschooling Today® magazine. It may not be copied or reprinted without written permission from Marilyn Rockett.