Margin is the space between two things.

Think about driving down the interstate. Margin is the space you leave between your car and the car in front of you. That space gives you room to react if something unexpected happens.

In personal finances, margin is what you have left after you have paid all your obligations. It is the cushion between what you earn and what you spend. It is the spread, the gap—the margin.

The concept of margin can apply to almost every area of our lives.

Let’s say you are a runner who is capable of running 10 miles, but today you take it easy and run only 5. You had the ability to run another 5 miles, but you chose not to use everything you had. That unused capacity is margin.

You may be asking, “Keith, what are you talking about?”

I’m talking about finances, work, time, health, relationships, and almost every other area of life.

Too often, we stretch ourselves right to the limit. We fill every minute of our schedules. We take on as much debt as we can afford. We accept more work than we can reasonably handle. Sometimes we even push our bodies and health to the breaking point.

There is something worth noticing in the story of creation. God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. God certainly did not rest because He was exhausted. The seventh day established a rhythm of rest. You might say the seventh day was margin.

Hopefully, you are not living at the very edge of everything you can handle.

Leave some margin between your workload and your life. After you pay your financial obligations, try to leave something over as a cushion. In your relationships, leave enough time to truly be present with your family rather than simply fitting them into an already crowded schedule.

Don’t live every day at the absolute limit of your time, energy, finances, or strength. Leave some room to breathe. Leave room for the unexpected. Leave room to enjoy the people God has placed in your life.

And most importantly, leave some margin in your schedule to spend time with the Creator of the universe. After all, He is the One who created you, and He knows better than anyone how much you can handle.

Some of the best moments we experience in life happen when there is no deadline to meet, no appointment to make, and nowhere else we have to be. Sometimes the space we are so quick to fill is exactly the space we need most.

Life is better when we leave a little margin. KT