Torch, Fall 1982

12 Help for the Hectic Household. A TORCH Interview with a Mother of Six: Margaret S. Wheeler TORCH: When people hear that you are a pastor' s wife and that you have six children , what is their first response? MSW: The first thing people say to me is some variation of the question , "What, no boys?" The second question is usually , "How do you do it?" TORCH: Well, how do you do it? MSW: Sometimes we don ' t! Sometimes the only difference between me and other mothers is that I am six times more harried than they are . But when we do manage to appear in public ' . . .fully clothed and in our right minds .. . ' it means that we have worked very hard to use our time wisely . TORCH: Do you have enough time to do all the things you want to do and all the things you know you should do ? MSW: No , but I don ' t know anybody who does . It seems to me that the basis of time management for anybody is knowing what is important to you and arranging to spend your time on those things . Another way of putting it is , doing what is important in a systematic way. TORCH: You have mentioned two ideas : doing what is important, and doing it systematically . How do you decide what is important? MSW: My goal is to be a truly Godly woman and to line up my life with God's values and priorities . Ephesians chapters 5 and 6 and Galatians 6 : I0 have been especially helpful to me in seeing my roles through God ' s eyes . My first responsibility is to build a strong and growing relationship with God Himself, to keep on becoming the person He has designed me to be . The next important relationship is with my husband and then with our children. In addition, God has a ministry for me outside my home: first to other believers, and to those outside the faith . I am particul arly excited about thi s last item. I have made a commitment thi s fall to order my life in such a way that I have time to build some friendships with some of my neighbors who don ' t know Christ. But naving said that , I find that knowing what my priorities are in my head and living by them on a daily basis are not always one and the same thing . TORCH: What do you do to try to live by your ideals? MSW: I find that I do my best when I keep my ideals in mind all the time , and the best way for me to do that is to spend time every day in the Word and in prayer: asking God to order my day and to help me make my plans pleasing to Him . It helps to know that God cares about me as a person , and that He cares about what I do , and that He has the power to help me do the things I don ' t want to do . TORCH: What time have you found to be the best for your personal quiet time? MSW: At this point in my life the only thing I can do with reasonable consistency is to get up early in the morning before the rest of the family. When our two preschoolers are in school I would like to go back to the time slot right after breakfast - that has been my favorite time . TORCH: Let' s go back to the idea of managing your time in a systematic way . Do you have a system for getting your goals accomplished – something like a work list perhaps? MSW: I have always loved lists and I've found planning is the key to getting things accomplished . I like to list my day 's activities in the order of importance during my quiet time . Two books that have been a great source of ideas for me are Anne Ortlund 's Disciplines of the Beautiful Woman (Word) and Getting Organized by Stephanie Winston (W. W . Norton & Co.) It took me a year to organize our house using Winston ' s plan , but it was definitely worth it. We keep a large wall calendar in the kitchen to chart everyone ' s activities and I use a notebook to keep track of my activities .