Can Women Have It All? A Grace-Filled Approach to ProductivitySample

Grace-filled approach to productivity

The way we choose to spend our time, energy, and attention is ultimately a way to love our families, friends, and communities well. But these things don’t happen by chance. We don’t accidentally become more like Christ—it requires time, energy, work, a reliance upon the Holy Spirit, and a life of prayer. We don’t accidentally love our neighbor—it takes forethought, planning, and execution.

The Proverbs 31 woman shows us a woman who fears the Lord and works diligently out of love for her family and community. We’re given insight into how this woman plans and produces. She rises while it is yet night, provides food for her household, prepares ahead to clothe her family for the winter, and opens her hand to the poor. Productivity marked her life, but she did it out of love for others.

The goal of productivity is to approach all of life as a steward. In his book Do More Better, Tim Challies states that “productivity is effectively stewarding your gifts, talents, time, energy, and enthusiasm for the good of others and the glory of God.”8 He goes on to say that “God calls you to productivity, but he calls you to the right kind of productivity. He calls you to be productive for his sake, not your own.” The world’s view of productivity is to elevate yourself above everyone else. But, a stewardship mindset understands that different seasons of life will demand different things from us. We plan, steward, and are faithful, but we trust the Lord when we fall. While I do believe Scripture calls us to be wise about stewarding our time, our identity should always be rooted in Christ’s finished work for us on the cross. Many of us know that we ought to budget our financial resources, but we should also have a similar mindset to how we budget our time, energy, and attention—all of which are limited resources. Our time on this earth isn’t infinite, and none of us know when our last breath might be. We should seek to have an eternity mindset with all our resources.

May we be women who live a deep, purposeful, and intentional life. May we be women who strive to faithfully steward our time, talent, and attention well. May we have margin for the meaningful moments of life. May we devote ourselves to glorifying the Lord and loving His people. May we grow into godly women. May we work hard in advancing God’s kingdom, the common good, and the flourishing of others.

Reflection Questions:

What are the most important things in this season of life for me to focus on?

How can I view productivity to love God and serve others?

How can I best structure my time to ensure I’m giving my energy and focus to the things that matter most?

What are the most important things I’m going to implement from this chapter?