This is August 24th. I am Eleanor Mann and we are working our way through Titus chapter 2. Today we are talking about being sensible. This passage in Titus says, Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips. nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children. So we've talked about these areas. So since we're all perfect and have mastered this, now we will move on. No, but we are making our way through Titus and seeking to understand the teaching that is in there for us and how God wants to work in our lives. in verse four, no, verse five, excuse me, to be sensible. So this is what we're talking about today, that the older women may encourage the young women to be sensible. And what, so let's start off with talking about what does this mean? The word encourage here literally means trained. and to train. And we have talked about this before that training involves not just speaking something or saying something or verbal instruction, but it also involves showing the person. Well, first of all, it involves doing what we are saying they should do. and then showing them how to do it. If possible, you can do it with them or talk about a specific application. And then they are responsibility for doing it on their own. So the training is a whole process. We talk about training our children. That's how you do it. We talk about training someone else in Bible study. That's really what we're seeking to do. It's the Ezra 710 principle. You can look that up sometime. But God talks about Ezra, how first he studied, then he obeyed, and then he taught. So it was a transitional thing. So we're talking about not just encouraging verbally, but training as in, showing them how to do something that we have learned and that is already active in our own lives. So the first step always starts with ourselves. And as we've talked about before, the literal word here for young women has to do with women who are as young as teenagers. So we're not just talking about, Something that, let me just say, something I see as a need is for women who are married and established in their families to be sensitive and available to help young women, as in teenagers who may not be married yet or may be newly married, how to live the kind of lives that God wants us to live. So I think sometimes we deal with problems instead of also being proactive. And some of the verses in this passage do talk about problems that need to be dealt with, but a lot of it is also being proactive. What do we need to do in order to be available to God in this area? Also, the word sensible here can also be translated as self-controlled. So what it means, literally the word sensible means able to have sense. It refers to the ability to think and make decisions and that's what we're going to be talking about today. Not controlled by emotions. Excuse me, I'm having trouble with my allergies so I'm a little bit hoarse. I'll try to keep my throat lubricated. No, I have not been shouting at my husband. It's allergies. Okay, so what does this word sensible mean? According to the dictionary, it means having or showing good sense and judgment. According to the Ungers Bible Dictionary, it's the faculty of mind for perceiving, understanding, judging. In the King James Bible, it's translated as discreet. which has to do with wisdom also, knowing when to speak, when to be silent, when to act, when not to act. And the Vines Expository Dictionary, which looks at the original language and its translation, talks about being moderate as to opinion or passion. So in all of these, it's talking about how we think, how we react, not making decisions on the basis of emotion, but learning how to think through. So that's what we're going to be talking about today in the whole realm of being sensible. This implies learning how to live by making good decisions and by good planning, not being ruled by emotion for the purpose of honoring the word of God. So let me say here that emotions are not wrong at all. God has put emotions into our makeup. It keeps us from being cold and functional. Emotions are not a bad thing, but the Bible does talk about not being ruled by our emotions. In other words, our emotions not controlling us, but we control them. And for women, because of our hormones, This is a real area of just being aware of that it's not wrong to be emotional, but we can recognize that when our hormones are active, we may tend to be more emotional than we would be when they're not so active. And just be aware of that being a factor in how we think and how we react. A good way to know if you're being ruled by your emotions versus being sensible is how you react in a crisis. For instance, if your husband comes home from work and says, well, they told me today that they are going to be letting me go from my job. I will not have a job as of next week. How is your reaction? It's okay to react emotionally but being sensitive to him. For instance, if you say, oh sweetie, I'm so sorry. I know that is so hard and discouraging for you. How can I help? See, that is being emotional. It's not being cold towards him, but it's thinking of him and not just us. But is our reaction, oh no, what are we going to do? We won't be able to live in our house. We'll have to go live with our mother. How can we buy food? How can we take care of our family? See, that's being controlled by emotion. A lot of times our husbands already have a tendency not to share problems with us. Some of that has to do with wanting to be strong. Some of that is just their makeup, but sometimes it's because we've trained them that way, because of how we react when they do share a problem with us. So we want to be, warm people. We want to be sensitive and loving and kind, but not ruled by our emotions, especially in the area of thinking through and making decisions. Okay, so that's what we're talking about today. Okay, so let's start by looking at a verse that we have talked about before, but we're gonna revisit it today in the context of learning to be sensible. Romans 12, one through three. Katie, can you read that for us? Katie, it must be cold where you are. You are all bundled up. It is quite cold. Here I am talking about our heat wave. But you are much farther South. South Africa, this is winter, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. It's a particularly cold spot at the moment. I don't know why. We thought it was getting warm, but cold. It's all our cold weather went down to you. You can send some back up anytime you want to. Kind of over and up. I'll be sure to do that. Yeah, thank you. Okay, Romans 12. Pardon me? Can I read it from the screen? Yes, yes, that's fine. Okay. Romans 12, 1 through 3. Okay. Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is. that which is good and acceptable and perfect. For through the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you, not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think, but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. See, I cannot tell you the number of times that I go back to this passage, just as a means of evaluating what I am doing. with my life, my thoughts, my actions, because it's very clear if we ask the question, how do we do this, in terms of just the whole issue of walking with God, today we're looking specifically at what it means to be sensible. But this passage really addresses so much in it. But the first thing we do when we are talking about this issue is to realize you start with an intentional dedication of yourself to God. It has to start with that, because just in our own minds, in our own thinking, we are not going to head in this direction. We are going to be governed by our emotions. So we start with dedicating ourselves to God intentionally. Present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice. In the Amplified Version, it says to make a decisive dedication of your bodies, presenting all your members and faculties as a living sacrifice, holy, devoted, consecrated, and well-pleasing to God. And then it goes on to say that this is our worship, So we think of worship sometimes as singing praise songs in church. And that is a form of worship. But when we are dedicating ourselves to God, that is worship too, just as if we were, we talk about laying things on the altar. But in the Old Testament, the sacrifices that were put on the altar were how the people worshiped. So under the new covenant, we know that Jesus was the sacrifice made for us. So we don't literally do that kind of sacrifice, but God does still want us to dedicate ourselves to him and to doing his will and not our will. And that's what this talking about. So that's how we start. Then it talks about, not allowing the world to conform us, which is what will naturally happen if we are not consciously allowing God to transform us from the inside by renewing our minds. And that's going to come through our exposure to the scripture and our willingness to learn how to apply scripture to our lives on a daily basis so that God can transform us. And any intake of the scripture that you make memorizing, meditating, studying, reading, listening, all of that intake of the scripture contributes to our minds being renewed. And the word transformed here, we're not going to look at that in depth right now, but it's actually the same word that is used in Matthew and Mark to talk about Christ's transfiguration. So this is talking about a real change, not just influence, or I can't think of a less strong word, but it is something that has changed completely. It's the same root word as our English word metamorphosis, which is where a caterpillar turns into a butterfly. And I don't understand that at all. in terms of scientifically how that happens. But spiritually, this is just as much a change, a transformation in our minds that God wants to do in us as that caterpillar turning into a butterfly. And that's what allows us to accomplish God's will, and not just to accomplish it, but to recognize it and to choose it. So that's what we are talking about here. We start with a decisive dedication and then we continue to allow God's word to transform us by renewing our minds so that we can discern and follow the will of God. Choose it. Again, we're talking a lot about choices here. Then in verse three, not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think. And I used to kind of view that particular phrase as a bit of a put down. But then I realized that no, it's really talking about wisdom and not allowing pride or even ignorance to blind us to what God wants us to do. Pride, to assume that we can do it on our own, or blindness, just not being aware of our responsibilities and our capacity and even our gifts and calling. So this says, so don't do that, but instead think so as to have sound judgment. So God wants us to learn how to think. And you know, when we're talking about these things, we are talking about being strong women. We've talked a lot about the whole area of submission, and we've talked about ministering to our husbands and our children, and that is the calling God has given us. and something he wants us to dedicate ourselves to. But it takes a lot of strength in order to do that. It doesn't mean that you turn into a dishrag or become compliant and lose your ability to think and plan. True submission is when we willingly recognize what God wants us to do and conform ourselves to it, joyfully. realizing that this is God's will for us and His plan and what is best. So we're talking about things that require us to be strong in this, not weak. Okay, so we're talking about developing sound judgment, which is strong, but it's sound judgment. Okay, the first step is to become wise. And wisdom here is being able to apply knowledge to daily life situations. So it's not theoretical knowledge. It is application. And if you are wise, then you are able to see how God's plan And God's will aligns with your daily life situations, whether they are big or whether they are small, whether the decisions are big or whether they are small. That's wisdom. Wisdom originates with God. Proverbs 9, verse 10. Thelma, can you read that for us? If you guys, oh, I see some chats that I've missed. You said Proverbs 9 verse 10, right? Yes. Sorry, let me just turn my Bible. Proverbs 9 verse 10. It says, the reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord is the beginning. The chief and choice part of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight and understanding. Okay, great. So wisdom originates with God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. So the world doesn't say that, do they? They say that wisdom has to do with intellectual knowledge, with education, with maybe just going through life. But the Bible says that true wisdom originates with God. So if we are seeking to be wise, then we are seeking to understand what God is doing. Guys, I just realized I've been neglecting some of you because I hadn't moved the cursor down to see who had joined our study. So Lana, don't worry about reading. I won't call on you today. Blessing. I appreciate you joining us. And lady, welcome. And Sarah, good. And I saw that someone had put in the chat room, Sharon, did you have a baby? Someone was offering their congratulations. Do you have a new baby at your house? My friend did so I'm at the hospital with her. Ah Okay Well good. Well, if you need to stay muted so that you don't disturb them, that is just fine I won't call on you to read anymore Thank you, ma. Okay, you're being very kind to have read instead of Fussed at me for calling on you when you're in a hospital room Okay, so good, welcome. And Lana, I saw your note that you can't read today. That is no problem. I'll try to remember that and not call on you. Okay, so in developing sound judgment, we do need to become wise. We know that wisdom starts with God, that he is the source of wisdom, and that as we get to know him, we will grow in the area of wisdom because we are learning how he thinks. And we are, if our minds are being transformed, then we are going to not only learn how God thinks, but our capacity for being able to discern His will and desire to make decisions that are in accordance with that will, our capacity will increase because we are becoming more like Him. How I see that you have joined us, welcome. Thank you. I'll try to acknowledge you guys as I see that you've joined and please forgive me if I miss your name or don't call on you. I'm just I'm trying to balance a lot of stuff and my little brain sometimes just has trouble doing it so I appreciate your understanding. Okay, so wisdom originates with God and he wants us to become wise in the word of God because that is the source for his teaching us about himself and specifically wisdom. Psalm 32 verse 8. Let's see. Who can I call on? Remember, lady, can you read? I remember last week I asked Oh yeah, no sorry last week perhaps I was out but I came back. So you say I should read Psalm 32 verse 8? Yes, I was trying to make sure that I hadn't missed comments people had sent. Yes, if you could read Psalm 32 verse 8 please, thank you lady. Alright, so I'm also going to use the one on the screen. It says that God instructs, teaches, counsels, Yes, that is those are the thoughts that are in Psalm 32 verse 8 It's not the specific verse. So but that is what that verse teaches. So that's good lady I would encourage you all though is You've got these notes look up the complete verse sometime because it has a lot more depth to it But yes, God does instruct teach counsels with his personal attention It says, I believe it says, with my eye upon you. Let me look that up real quickly so I can be accurate. Yes. No, that's fine. That's fine. Because some of these, the ones in italics are the complete verse. And then the ones that are just in regular print are my paraphrase of it. I'll tell you what happened today. I sat down, I had been working on Bible study, and for some reason my notes on the computer had disappeared. I had a printout of my notes, but they weren't on the computer, so I had to retype everything into the computer so that I could send it out. And I was afraid that I wouldn't get all the full verses typed. So I typed some of the ones, and then others I just did kind of a paraphrase of it because I wanted to make sure I had it through in time to Send out to you. So this was my own little application today of having sound judgment and not panicking Because when I realized my notes had disappeared my first tendency was to go at And my second tendency was, oh no, we can't have Bible study today. And then I thought, no, you can retype and we can have Bible study and everything will be fine. So it's an area I'm still learning in, let me say it that way. Okay, so let's go back, Psalm 32, eight. I think the thing that I think is so neat about this verse, it's neat that God instructs, teaches and counsels us. because these specific things are things that we all need because he's telling us what to do. That's instruction. He's teaching us. That has to do with what, but also the why. And then he counsels us, which means he goes through it with us and deals with us personally to help us understand what he specifically wants us to do. But then when it says, with my eye upon you, That means that he is actually giving us his personal attention. And we're talking about a God who is Lord of the universe, who is dealing with a world full of people. And yet he, in his infinite capacity, he is able to give us his personal attention. So that's the God who is involved in our lives. Isaiah 30, 21 says about the same thing, but a little bit different way. Blessing, are you able to read today? You may not be able to. Okay. Let me do it this way, like I did before. If anyone would like to read, if you'll let me know in the chat room, I'll call on you. Otherwise, I won't call on you, so that those of you who are not able to or have Children in the room or like Sharon's in the hospital with her friend You know, that's fine. I just appreciate your joining the study So whether you read or not is not critical, but I do think it's neat to involve everybody So that's why I'm doing that. So let me read Isaiah 30 verse 21. I Okay. Your ears will hear a word behind you. This is the way. Walk in it. Whenever you turn to the right or to the left. Now, we know that God is primarily speaking to us personally through his word. But it says that through his word, he can still tell us specifically where to go and what to do. So again, it's this personal involvement with our lives that God is conforming his instruction to suit our needs and our abilities and our calling and our situation in life, all of those things. God is instructing and teaching us and counseling us and speaking to us through that filter. So when we talk about becoming wise in the Word of God, He does everything He can in order to teach us. We just have to listen and respond. Psalm 119.30 is written on the screen, and it says, I have chosen the faithful way. I have placed your ordinances before me. In other words, choosing, it's a choice to choose to be faithful and to follow God faithfully. And even to place his ordinances before me. Those are a result of a choice. Psalm 119, 66. I think I put that on your notes. I added that at the last minute because I found that verse and really liked it. It says, teach me good discernment and knowledge for I believe in your commandments. Boy, that will be a daily prayer for me. That is excellent. Teach me good discernment and knowledge. So God wants to do those things for us. His wisdom is freely available to us. He freely offers it. He tailors it. You know, we talk with children, We talk about individualized instruction. Well, that's what God's giving us. He's giving us individualized instructions according to the need of the moment. Um, we just have to respond to it and to allow him to do that and to work it into our thinking so that our minds are renewed so that we choose to follow his will so that we can grow closer to him. Okay. Um, So developing sound judgment, become wise. The next thing is to become discerning about your own gifts and ability. Again, Romans 12 verse three, thinking with sound judgment. Now, it's good to try new things, to maybe take on a new responsibility or do something you haven't done before. I was asked one time to lead the music for a women's conference. I enjoy music. I can sing. I can play piano. But I had never led music. I've sung in choirs for a good part of my life, but I had never actually led music. But I thought, well, I've seen how they do it. It can't be that hard. That was the hardest thing. It wasn't hard to raise my arms and wave them to the beat of the music and to keep up with the songs and to direct and lead in that sense, but my arms got so tired. And you have to be able, you have to raise your arms for the congregation to be able to see you. So I decided after that particular time of doing that, that probably wasn't something I was going to do on a regular basis. I think if that's something that God's giving you a heart for, He can help you develop the strength and He can help you learn how to do it, but it wasn't something that I could just pick up and do without training. So that was an instance where I needed to just think with sound judgment about my own abilities. Capacity. There are times when I have said no to opportunities because I knew that my capacity was full. That the ages of my children or other responsibilities with helping John in his ministry or just my involvement with other things just did not leave me with the capacity to be able to do more. So learning to say no is an aspect of having sound judgment. Not being afraid to try something new, but then being able to evaluate and discern, is this something that I should continue doing or not? Okay? So, next area of this is develop convictions from the word of God. And we talked about this in one of our other lessons, but in Ephesians 4.14, I see some chat people. Okay. Okay. Okay. Looks like most people today are not going to be able to read, so that's okay. You are stuck with me and I have a full glass of water, so we'll be fine. So develop convictions from the word of God. Ephesians 4.14 says, that we are no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming. There are two images here. First, being tossed here and there by waves. I live close to the ocean and If you are out in the ocean and you do not know how to swim, or you do not know specifically how to swim in the ocean, because sometimes you need to swim parallel to the shore and not turning into the shore in order to keep from being caught in a strong current. But children, if they don't know how to swim, they are just going to be at the mercy of the waves tossing them about. It's very dangerous. God doesn't want us to be like that, and not carried about by every wind of doctrine. Every new thing that comes along, we take it up. We may have done Bible study and be very convinced of a doctrinal teaching, let's say, eternal security of the believer, that we are saved by grace and not by works. And then one person will share a verse that seems to question that and all of our thinking is thrown out the window and we are back to being discouraged because we've lost our salvation. The same thing is talking about in Colossians 2. It starts out in verses 6 and 7 talking about, So that's what God wants us to be rooted in our relationship with Christ. Stick our roots down firmly so that if there's a drought or if there's a wind, we are not gonna be uprooted because we are established in our faith. And then at that point, no one can take you captive through philosophy and empty deception. Captive means someone capturing When someone is taken captive, they have been captured by someone, sometimes against their will, sometimes just through their own carelessness, but they are being held and not allowed to go back to where they were. So philosophy and empty deception, if we allow false teaching, if we are not firmly rooted and established in our own faith, It's much easier for us to become confused or even led astray through teaching that is not based on the word of God. We're not talking about, well, that's what we're talking about. We're talking about developing convictions from the word of God so that we have stability in our lives. We're not, again, like we said at the beginning, we're not basing decisions on our emotions, on what we feel like. We are basing our decisions on something we have thought through and studied and evaluated and discerned to be true. And then we are stable. We are immovable. We are convinced. Developing convictions from the word of God means we are convinced on what the word of God says. Okay? So another aspect of developing sound judgment is establishing priorities. And that's what we're going to talk about right here at the end of our lesson. Priorities enable us to stay focused on what's most important. If you have established priorities, then you will know when your day is over that you have accomplished the most important thing, not just what was the most, necessarily the most pressing or the most, what got your attention or even necessarily what you wanted to do, but you have accomplished the things that you had decided you were going to do that were the most important and not getting everything done on your list is not significant to the point of discouraging you. Okay, let's talk about that a little bit more. I'm not sure that I'm very clear on that right here. Priorities are fluid. Some will always stay the same and some will change. For instance, when you are married, your priority becomes You have a very strong priority to minister to your husband, and that is as it should be. But it means that your time is no longer completely your own, that now you are thinking of your husband, and that is figuring into how you plan your day. Planning meals according to his schedule, planning things that are going to assist him taking care of the household. All of those priorities are different than they are when you're a single girl. Then you add a baby to the mix and your priorities are going to change even more because now a lot of your time is going to be involved with taking care of that little one, especially when they are tiny. they will not always stay tiny. They will become more independent and your priorities will change again because now you're more involved in helping them be a success at school and involved in their activities. So priorities are fluid. Some will stay the same, your walk with God, your ministry to your husband, but some will change according to the situation in your life. But having priorities enable us to stay focused on what's most important, rather than just taking care of the immediate. The first way, the first aspect of establishing priorities is to plan. God guides, but we do plan. Psalm 90 verse 12. Oh, Agnes, I see that you've joined us. Welcome. We are glad for you to be here. Psalm 90 verse 12 says, so teach us to number our days that we may present to you a heart of wisdom. Agnes, I'm sorry you were feeling dizzy. We will pray for you. Yes, please just listen and we are just glad for you to have joined us. Okay. So teach us to number our days that we may present to you a heart of wisdom. I have applied this kind of literally. I have a piece of paper with the days of the week blocked out. And I have specific tasks that I want to accomplish on each day of the week. And that accomplishes two things. I have my priorities listed on it at the top. Things that are like Thursday, this Bible study is a priority. On Tuesday, John has a whole series of Zoom studies. Those are a priority. So a lot of things revolve around focusing on that priority for those days. But then I have other things, other tasks that are listed that I want to accomplish on those specific days of the week. And it does It really helps me in a couple of ways. It helps me to divide my work up so that I'm not feeling overcome because I see that I can do different things on different days and accomplish what I want to accomplish. It also helps me just to be able to evaluate. Sometimes things come up that are not planned. Someone stops by or I find out I need to run an errand. or I find out someone is coming to dinner, or there's an activity going on, and so the priorities for that day will shift, and I may not get everything accomplished that I had wanted to accomplish on that particular day. Well, then I can just slide it over to another day. So for me, that has been very helpful, just for me to keep up with what I need to do. Psalm 1611 says, God makes known to us the path of life. And this is a beautiful verse. Actually, the full verse says, thou wilt make known to me the path of life in their presence. Let's see, let me find it so I tell you the whole thing in the word of God and not just the word of Eleanor. Okay, Psalm 1611. You will make known to me the path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy. In your right hand there are pleasures forever. So God's plan, even when it comes to priorities, is not to overwhelm us. It's in order to bring us into his presence with joy, and it's in order to grant pleasure to us. So God's plans for us are good, but he does make known to us the path he wants us to take, the path that is best, the path that is his will. And so having priorities enables us to stay on that path and to know just what specific things he wants us to emphasize. Proverbs 16, nine says, the mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps. So we do make these plans knowing that God's the one in control. And so if, If something comes up that's unexpected, then I have the confidence that God's in control, that I can let go of my plan and flow with the plan that He's giving me and trust that what He has directed is the most important thing for the day. Very important when you have small children at home and one of them gets sick. Because that's all it takes to throw your whole day out of whack. Because suddenly everything that you had thought you were going to do goes out the window because you were focusing on that child and taking care of them. And that's the right thing to do. But we want to do it with a glad heart and not out of frustration because of all the things that we can't do because of taking care of that little one. Proverbs 19.21, many plans are in a man's heart, but the counsel of the Lord will stand. So, same idea. It is good to have plans. It says many plans are in a man's heart, but we know that God is ultimately the one in control. So plan, but know that God is guiding. Luke 2.52 can be a possible guideline in planning objectives, goals, priorities, because it's describing Jesus and His growth. It says, Jesus grew in wisdom, in stature, and in favor with God and man. And you can break these down into four categories of growth. Intellectual, physical, favor with God spiritual, and favor with man social. And John and I actually used this some when we were evaluating our goals and objectives for our children because we were involved with disciplining them in order to be a success, but we also wanted to be proactive in our planning, not just reactive to areas of need. So we would break down what is, how can we help them to grow intellectually? That was school or specific skills or tasks. How could we help them grow physically? What kind of physical activities could we help them develop in? Favor with God, of course, is spiritual. How were we helping them grow spiritually? Were there spiritual issues? I have a friend who took one of the Fruits of the Spirit each week with their children and they talked about it, they memorized a verse concerning it, and then they figured out how they could practice it in secret with each other during the week. And then it almost became a little game to try to figure out when someone was showing some kindness to you, or when someone was exercising self-control. And that became a real, a proactive, fun thing for them, helped the children to understand what those different character traits were, and also helped them recognize when others were exercising them towards them, and to be grateful for that really helped bond their children with each other. And then the last area of favor with man, that's social development. Interacting with friends, knowing how to behave in a group setting, being comfortable with different interactions with people, Politeness, manners, all of those come under the area of social. So that's one guideline you can use. Now, this is an application of a verse. So this is our application, and this is in a sense a method, but it is based on scripture. So you don't have to do this, but it is an idea for something you could do if you wanted to, and in your own life. you know, have balanced priorities in these different areas. Let me show you if I can switch to the whiteboard. It may make us lose our notes. Okay. Now I probably should have practiced this ahead of time. Let me see if I can do this. Okay. This is supposed to be a circle. This is 24 hours this represents one day okay now you cannot stretch it to get more hours as much as you would like to at midnight one second after midnight it becomes the next day now this is something someone shared with me that really helped me in my thinking about my priorities okay Then think through on what you specifically have in terms of responsibilities in your day. Okay? Let's say you have taking care of your house. Okay? And that takes this much out of your maybe six hours total out of your 24 hours. When you include washing, dishes, Um, clothes, cleaning, cooking. Uh, then let's say if you have children, this might even be bigger, but let's say you have six more hours a day that you are taking care of your children. You are, um, helping them get dressed. You are teaching them different things. You are, uh, just watching them. You are playing with them. You were carrying them back and forth to school, if they're in school. Okay, well right now, that's 12 hours, isn't it? Now you need at least, oh, let's see, that's not accurate. Sorry, you can tell I'm not a math major. You need, say, at least six hours of sleep. Now those of you who have little babies I know are laughing right now, because you would kill to have six hours of sleep in a night. But you do need some time for sleep. And then you also need some time, take some time just for yourself to get dressed, to do your hair. That leaves maybe two to four hours that is not already committed to other things. I'm including You're, and I talk about caring for the house and the children. I should say that I'm including your husband in this because he needs some attention and some, you want to spend some time together in that too. But the main thing here that I want you to realize is that you have 24 hours. You cannot add. If your pie is already full with responsibilities, you cannot add another responsibility without taking something off. And that's important to realize. And once I realized this, this was a real help to me just in terms of being realistic. Because what I was doing was adding more and more and more and more and more. And actually, I ended up getting pneumonia and was in the hospital for a week. So it got our attention. John immediately made some changes so that, and I did too, but he stepped right in and took care of me. But the doctor told him, he said, you know, she is run down. And that was the primary reason why I had ended up catching pneumonia just from being run down. So my point is when I share this, whoops. Okay. I lost the note, sorry, but we're almost done. Let me see if I can reclaim the notes. Okay, there they are. My point is, And this is what looking at the pie chart helped me realize is to realize that time is finite. It's not infinite. So you cannot add to your day when your day is already full without removing something from it. Now, sometimes you can remove something from it. Sometimes you can figure out, especially as your children get older and more independent, they can contribute to helping to take care of the house. Or you may be able to hire someone to help take care of the house and relieve yourself from some of that. Because once my four children were all in school full-time, I did go to work as a teacher. We had evaluated that we needed the extra income. So I'm not saying that you shouldn't work outside your home, but in terms of my priorities, my priorities needed to stay husband, children, home, up in their place. So that meant that something else needed to give in terms of my pie chart in order to add in the time I would spend at work. Okay? So, when we learn to live by sound judgment, having dedicated ourselves to God and his service, and having become committed to the word of God as our guide, then we can live fruitful, fulfilled lives focused on what's truly important. And that's the whole issue here of sound judgment, is being able to think clearly, evaluate, and make decisions. Somewhere, I may have left this out inadvertently, but there's a really, oh, yeah, I did. Proverbs 31 16 talking about the godly woman says that she considers a field and then buys it. Sound judgment means just like that woman being able to think through and consider the pros and cons of doing something. What are the eventual results if you make this decision in this way or the other way? In other words, just being able to think through what are going to be the consequences of this situation. And then you figure out what you were going to do. And that is how God wants us to live. Not having to always make decisions on the basis of our emotions, on the basis of the immediate, being able to actually think through and use our minds to be wise in our priorities and on our basic life decisions. Psalm 119, 165 says, those who love your law have great peace and nothing causes them to stumble. The key is loving the law, loving God's word and immersing ourselves in it so that he is able to lead and guide and instruct us with his eye on us, with that personal attention. And the result of that is peace and stability. Nothing causes them to stumble. That's what we are able to achieve. And then Philippians 4, 6, and 7, be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. Prayer. We don't have to wallow in anxiety or worry. Things will happen that can cause us to want to go down that path. But what God says is prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Ask him for wisdom. Let your requests be made known to God. And then he promises that the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, we can't understand how it works, but he gives it. We'll guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. So God promises that he will set a guard over our heart so that we don't make rash decisions or have emotional reactions in situations because we have emptied those anxieties before him and allowed him to take care of them for us and to instruct us in how we should handle whatever the situation is. So I hope that this is helpful in terms of understanding what it means to be sensible And I hope that this has given you some ideas for celebrating the areas in doing this that you have grown in and in seeing which areas we need to develop further and to being aware with our children. How can we develop being sensible in their thinking too? So I do pray that this has been helpful to you. I appreciate your coming and your attention. I know a lot of you are in situations where it would really be easy to not do this Bible study. And I appreciate the fact that you are doing it and really pray that God will use this in your life in a positive way. So let's pray.