Breathing Room

Inhale............Exhale..........(Repeat as much as necessary!)

I have to share about this recent ah-ha moment. It came from an Andy Stanley sermon series called Breathing Room. (Listen to the full series here or find North Point Church in Atlanta on itunes and subscribe to their podcast)

He speaks about living a life with margin or breathing room. This can apply to your schedule, relationships, and finances. What would margin in those areas look like for you?

I started thinking about how much breathing room I was allowing in my life. At one point, we were living with little to no breathing room in our finances. Our spending pace was right on top of our spending limit. The changes we made financially felt even better than that deep breath you took at the beginning of this post. We have space between our current pace and our financial limit.

Because I know how freeing it is financially, I want to create that same space in my time. Andy Stanley described how creating breathing room with how I spend my time is a life changer, because my time is my life!
                   "Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." Psalm 90:12 NIV


I encourage you to write down 4 different things about your time, finances, and/or relationships.

1. Write down what you need to add
2. Write down what you need to subtract (get rid of something completely)
3. Write down what you need to do more of
4. Write down what you need to do less of (not completely get rid of but reduce)

Now try those things and breathe in the freedom of space in your life!


With our financial breathing room, Chris and I recently celebrated paying off a student loan by taking a weekend vacation. I wanted to share some highlights! :)

I got a manicure and pedicure while Chris spent some time at Guitar Center- both of us got pampered!!

We stayed at a hotel on the Plaza- they delivered fruit to our room!!

We both bought new books and on Sunday and Monday morning we spent some time reading. We also listened to a podcast sermon on marriage while sipping our coffee at Starbucks. (headphone jack splitter!!)

My yummy stuffed (with brie, lump crab, and shrimp) salmon at McCormick and Schmick's (Chris' fish and chips wasn't as photogenic!)

Sunday night we went to a Kari Jobe and Chris Tomlin concert- highlight of the weekend!