For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. Romans 6:14

Email derails me every time I log on. It’s an incredibly helpful tool to reach out to friends, organize events, communicate with teachers and school administrators, etc. But I end up getting side-tracked by all the requests and demands made of me through it.

Worse yet, throughout the course of my day I spend 15 to 20 minutes deleting and managing all the spam emails I get. I’ve tried to unsubscribe to each site (which consumes a lot of time), but my requests are ignored. All that time adds up and detracts from my day.

And then I made a mistake that changed everything.

While trying to delete in big batches last week, I accidentally clicked on the envelop icon with a magnifying glass. Lo and behold, it’s a “Mark as Spam” shortcut! When I realized that not only does it delete whatever you’ve highlighted in that moment, it blocks that site’s emails for forever more, I swear I heard angels sing!

Now each time I log on, I only have 15 to 20 new emails versus 150 to 200! I feel like I just got my life back!!

It got me wondering what else I would like to “mark as spam” in my life? What bad habits and patterns would I like to toss in the trash and block for forever more? What areas of my life would I like to reclaim so I have more time to focus on the true priorities in my life?

I know there’s no magic icon to click on for all of that, but there is God. He’s far more powerful than any button on a computer screen. I just need to turn to Him routinely, not accidentally or as a last resort.

Once I target what needs to be eliminated, I need to practice turning it over to Him, over and over again, until He has dominion over it. Once it’s truly marked as spam, it will no longer tempt me astray, even if it does fall into the inbox of my day.

Questions for Reflection:

• What habits or patterns would I like to “mark as spam”?
• Have I tried to routinely turn them over to God to have dominion over?