Every so often in my life, I have stopped and thought about the things I'm doing and the things I want to do and realising that there are not 25 hours in each day and 8 days in each week and I need my sleep, something has to go.
The last time was back in 2009 when I stepped down from the Baptist Union Council and from being a member of the planning committee of 'Men Women and God'. This made way for my calling to be the minister of Zoar Baptist Chapel.
Way back, I was accused by my minister of never staying at one thing - but then I was a mother of two small boys and life for a mother as they grow up is constantly changing.
I have now told the folk at Zoar that I wish to cut back on the number of times I preach during the year. At the moment I 'do' the 1st and 3rd Sundays, taking holidays when it is a 'five Sunday' month. Next year, there will be some months when I only preach on the 1st Sunday, giving me a long break in which to walk the hills, finish decorating the house and do further research into the life of Mrs Spurgeon. I have nearly finished an article - it just needs a few tweeks - and hopefully it will be accepted for publication by the Baptist Quarterly.
I also wondered about pulling out from our village book club as it takes up a morning when I would otherwise be writing a sermon. But we had such a good time discussing The Richard Burton Diaries this morning that I have decided that it is too good to miss.
